Sierra Leone schedules municipal polls

Freetown - The West African nation of Sierra Leone will hold local government elections next June, the head of the electoral commission said on Thursday."The four-year term for all local councillors winds up next May and so elections will be held in June," Christiana Thorpe, chair of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) told reporters.She said council boundaries, not revised since 1966, will have to be re-drawn starting next month until January before voter registration between February and March next year.The West African nation of 5.5 million recently held much acclaimed democratic legislative and presidential elections in a vote said to turn the page after a chequered past of military takeovers and one of the most brutal civil wars in modern history. The election ushered into office a formerly opposition All People's Congress (APC) party-led government.