They turned out in their droves — thousands of them at polling stations, where tempers flared earlier due to delays arising from late delivery of ballot materials.

Voters were electing a new president to succeed wartime President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who has completed his two-five year terms.

They are also to choose new lawmakers for the 112-seat parliament.

“I came to vote for peace and continued development. We want water, electricity and food, especially rice. We say to more queuing for food like we used to do,” said Assiatou Sesay, in her late 80s, as she was slowly moving away from polling station with the aid of a walking stick.

She has seen the leaders come and go and survived the decade-long civil war. She has voted in all the elections conducted in the country since independence in 1961, and she all she hopes for now is “that all will go well this time.”

Kadiatou Toure, 23, a recent hairdressing school graduate, patiently waits at the end of one of about a dozen long queues of voters, with an old plastic bag covering her hair from the rain.

She waits to cast her first ballot in her lifetime.

“This my first vote, must make this country better, we need jobs, we are suffering too much,” she said.

The voters were determined to cast their ballots as they lined up in front of an old Wilberforce municipal primary school opened in 1926, whose motto read, in fading paint: “Firmly we persevere”.

“I have been here since five o’clock. I am voting for peace and a good president. Look, this country has no electricity, no water, no good hospitals, no good roads,” said Fatima Kande. Her comments were echoed by others.

Critics blame Kabbah for failing to lift the world’s second poorest country out of misery. But his sympathizers praise him for ending the war and maintaining stability since.

Wiberforce polling station was crammed by thousands of voters. Chaos at the place forced the vice president and ruling party candidate Solomon Berewa to make a U turn until tempers had cooled.

The wet and potholed roads as well as lack of adequate security made timely delivery of ballots difficult.

A polling official Musah Mansaray expressed frustration at having to turn away many voters whose electoral cards were valid but whose names are missing from the roll in front of him.

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