REPLAY Rallies by ruling party and opposition on last days of campaigning

Описание: (10 Aug 2007) SHOTLIST
8 August, 2007
1. Wide shot of capital Freetown
2. Wide shot of election rally held by the main opposition All People's Congress Party
3. Leader of All People's Congress party, Ernest Bai Koroma entering stadium on jeep and waving to supporters
4. Koroma addressing rally
5. Supporters waving to Koroma
6. Magician casting spell to bring Koroma good luck
7. Wide shot of Koroma poster
8. Medium of Koroma poster
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Voxpop, Koroma supporter, no name given:
"I know Koroma will win the election."
9 August, 2007
10. Wide shot of rally of the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party
11. Poster of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, who can't run again because of constitutional term limits
12. Security in city
13. Two men putting on T-shirts of Kabbah and Vice President Solomon Berewa, who is running for president
++NIGHT SHOTS++
14. Berewa entering stadium in jeep
15. Wide shot of Berewa
16. Close-up of Berewa waving to supporters
17. Berewa addressing rally
18. Berewa supporters singing and dancing
19. Various of people injured in civil war (ruling party supporters) competing in races
STORYLINE
War-weary Sierra Leone chooses a new president on Saturday, its first election since United Nations peacekeepers withdrew from the diamond-rich nation two years ago.
The vote will test the West African nation's ability to transfer power peacefully after years of coups, according to the country's Electoral Commission.
Seven candidates are vying for the nation's top post, with 69-year-old Vice President Solomon Berewa leading the pack.
President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, 75, can't run again because of constitutional term limits.
Alongside the presidential race, 572 candidates are contesting 112 parliamentary seats. Results are expected to come in bit by bit with final tallies announced up to 12 days after voting.
Sierra Leone has come a long way since its war was declared over in 2002.
But the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said in a new report summing up the nation's current state that "most of the problems that existed before the war remain" - among them poverty, bad governance, corruption, massive unemployment and disillusioned youth.
Minor skirmishes between rock-throwing youths from rival parties have cast a shadow over campaigning in several towns and left residents apprehensive, but no serious
violence has broken out and the threat of renewed conflict seems remote.
Berewa's strongest competitor is thought to be 54-year-old Ernest Bai Koroma, a charismatic businessman leading the main opposition All People's Congress Party.
Also running is Charles Francis Margai, 62, a lawyer and former minister who runs the People's Movement for Democratic Change, which broke away from the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party 15 months ago.
The winner of Saturday's poll must take more than 55 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off between the top two finishers. About 2.6 (m) million of the nation's 5 (m) million
people are registered to vote.
President Kabbah is finishing off his second five-year term in office after winning in a landslide in 2002, just months after the war.
Tens of thousands of civilians died in the conflict, which ended after UN and British forces beat back the Revolutionary United Front, whose rebels were infamous for burning parts of Freetown, abducting children into their ranks, and raping and hacking off the limbs of civilians.
Kabbah is credited with keeping the country stable since then.
mutilating civilians during the conflict.

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