The presidential candidate of Sierra Leone's ruling party says two main opposition candidates have banded together to defeat him in a likely run-off election.
Solomon Berewa, candidate of the Sierra Leone People's Party, is running second in the presidential race with about 80 percent of the votes from the August 11 election counted.
Berewa told reporters Monday that Charles Margai, who is in third place in the voting, has agreed to support front-runner Ernest Koroma in the run-off.
Neither Margai nor Koroma has made such an announcement, but a Freetown newspaper, the Concord Times, reports the two men held a 30-minute meeting on Saturday.
The latest results give Koroma from the All People's Congress party 44 percent of the vote. Berewa has 38 percent, while Margai of the opposition People's Movement for Democratic Change has about 15 percent.
Final results are expected some time this week.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
