Opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma was sworn in as Sierra Leone president within hours of being declared the winner of a tense run-off vote and vowed to adopt zero tolerance on corruption.
In choosing Koroma, the citizens of the West African country voted against the party that ushered them out of a devastating war in 2002 and for the promise of a better peace with less corruption and more jobs.
Within hours of Koroma's swearing in, hundreds of looters descended on the ruling party headquarters, ransacking every room. They could be seen carrying out desks and chairs, computer monitors and printers, posters and coat racks before police blanketed the neighborhood in tear gas.
Police shot live rounds into the air and arrested numerous looters before setting up a police cordon and regaining control of the area. At least one person was killed.
Koroma won 55 percent of 1.7 million valid ballots, compared with 45 percent for the ruling party candidate, vice president Solomon Berewa, election commission chief Christiana Thorpe said on Monday.
Koroma was sworn in during an afternoon ceremony in Freetown in the presence of outgoing president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and Berewa. Kabbah had been barred by term limits from running for a third five-year term.
"I inherited a bankrupt, war-torn and failing state. Today, I am handing over to you a fully stable and functional state," Kabbah told Koroma in front of a crowd of cheering and clapping supporters.
Thousands wearing red T-shirts and hats in support of Koroma clogged the streets of Freetown. They sang and danced throughout a heavy downpour.
Though ruling party officials had earlier decried the outcome on local radio, Berewa said he called Koroma with congratulations soon after the release of results.
The election, the first presidential vote since UN peacekeepers withdrew two years ago, has been seen as a test of whether the West African country has emerged from the chaos wrought by a decade-long war.
Peace was re-established with the help of UN forces in 2002, but most of its citizens remain poor and unemployed, and corruption is rampant.
Koroma had run on a platform of change and promised to rout out corruption and create more economic opportunity.
A former insurance company executive, he also promised to run the government with the efficiency of a business -- promising to quickly rebuild roads and war-battered infrastructure.
"My government will spare no effort to adopt zero tolerance on corruption and mismanagement of state resources. We know how high your expectations are and that you have suffered for too long," Koroma told the crowd of military officials, dignitaries and supporters.
His upset victory is a rarity in a region dominated by strong ruling parties.
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