National elections will be held in Sierra Leone in late 2012, a decade after the end of the west African state's bloody civil war, the National Electoral Commission said on Saturday.
Official Raymond George said local, parliamentary and presidential polls would take place on one day in the third quarter of the year but declined to give an exact date.
"The three elections will be held the same day including presidential, parliamentary and local government," he said.
Five political parties are officially recognised to contest the upcoming elections including the ruling APC, the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), and the relatively small People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as well as the most recently registered party, the United Democratic Movement (UDM).
A three-month voter registration would start in January 2012 using 800 biometric machines worth 18.6 million us dollars.
The commission "has a lot of work to do in educating voters about the biometric process considering the fact that 70 percent of voters are illiterate," the organisation said in a leaflet.
President Ernest Koroma has been in power since 2007.
The election will cost $47 million, 27 million of which will come from the government of Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone to elect new president in late 2012: official
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