They’re looking for a government that will help them overcome the effects of a debilitating civil war, a horrible Ebola outbreak and a deadly mudslide.

President Ernest Bai Koroma’s standing down after completed two five year terms.

But with 16 candidates vying for his job, there’s no certainty about who takes up the reins.

Despite having abundant natural resources, including diamonds, bauxite and gold, Sierra Leone is among the poorest countries in the world, with one of the world’s highest maternal and infant mortality rates.

The population of seven-and-a-half million have only 150 doctors.

Their frustration caused some violence during the election campaign.

It is hope voting will be peaceful.

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They’ll certainly have a new president replacing Ernest Bai Koroma who’s constitutional term has expired.

And they’ll probably have a more diversified parliament.

There are sixteen presidential candidates contest this election, with the ruling All People’s Congress that run Sierra Leone since independence from Britain in 1961 under threat.

Violence during political rallies has forced former Ghanaian President John Mahama, who is heading the Commonwealth observer team, to play a mediation role.

Poverty, corruption and poor health services are the main issues in this election.

Sierra Leone, which has 150 doctors tending to the population of seven-and-a-half million is still recovering from the devastating Ebola outbreak and a killer mudslide.

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Local mortuaries have been totally overwhelmed by the more than 400 bodies recovered so far.  A further 1 500 people are missing.

After the Ebola outbreak three years ago, Sierra Leoneans have become accustomed to burying large numbers of their people who died tragically.

They’re saying the victims of the mudslide eclipse those who died of the deadly virus.

Today’s mass burials are necessitated to free up space in the mortuaries.

A special reception area has been set at Regency, 25kms east of Freetown, which was hardest hit by the collapsing hill overlooking it.

Hospitals are also inundated with badly injured survivors.

The international help that President Ernest Bai Koroma has called for cannot come soon enough.

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The disaster that killed more than 300, with the toll certain to increase, eclipses even the ebola outbreak of three years ago.

Rescue operations after heavy rains caused sugarloaf hill to collapse on a residential area outside Freetown have become a grizzly recovery operation.

None of the hundreds buried in their sleep could possibly have survived the suffocating wall of mud that engulfed them.

The UN warns that waterborne diseases will inevitably follow what President Ernest Bai Koroma calls a national disaster.

The world organization is waiting for the flood to subside.

It says is cannot allow its workers to put themselves as risk.

The rainy season has just started and further mudslides are inevitable.

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Head of the regional economic bloc ECOWAS Marcel de Souza says Military intervention in Gambia is possible”if President Yahya Jammeh does not step down after having lost elections.

ECOWAS president  Marcel de Souza says diplomacy’s  the preferred path, but draconian measures will  have to be considered if it fails.

Presidents  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, and John Mahama of Ghana have spoken to Yayha Jammeh and president-elect Adama Barrow in an attempt to manage a peaceful transition of power in Gambia.

Johnson says the talks have not yielded an agreement.

This is not something that can be accomplished in a single day. They have to work on it.

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The West Africa country has suffered more than 2 000 of the 7 000 deaths from the current outbreak of the haemorrhagic disease and has eclipsed Guinea as the country with the fastest infection rate.

Having banned Christmas and New Year festivities, Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma has tried to limit socialising.

He’s stopped Sunday trading, restricted shopping on other days and curbed travel between districts.

Urging his people not to hide the sick he explains that the searches are designed to break the chain of Ebola transmission.

Freetown has recorded more than 50% of all Ebola infections in Sierra Leone over the past two weeks.

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