Originally Published: 27 JUN 23 12:51 ET

Updated: 27 JUN 23 13:53 ET

By Nimi Princewill and Stephanie Busari, CNN

(CNN) — Sierra Leone’s President Maada Bio has been reelected for a second term in office, the country’s electoral commission announced Tuesday.

Bio’s Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) won nearly 1.6 million votes – 56.1% of the total ballots – to defeat his closest opponent, Samura Kamara of the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party, who won a 41% share of the vote.

Bio took an early lead on Monday, according to provisional results released by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL).

But the tallying of votes was fraught with controversies with international observers expressing concern about the integrity of the process.

“Carter Center observers reported that the tabulation process lacked adequate levels of transparency,” the observer group said in a statement ahead of the declaration of the final results.

“Carter Center observers directly observed instances of broken seals and inappropriately open ballot boxes in three of the five tally centers,” it added in its preliminary report issued Tuesday.

The APC party has yet to react to the final declared results.

However, it rejected the provisional results announced by the ECSL Monday, describing it as “cooked-up figures.”

It alleged a lack of transparency by the electoral body to tallying the ballots, adding that its agents “were neither allowed access to participate (at tally centers) nor were they allowed to verify results prior to the announcement.”

“In view of these grave infractions, abuse pf the democratic process and unprecedented lack of inclusivity, transparency and accountability, the APC cannot in anyway accept these results; we totally reject the chief Electoral Commissioner’s announcement of such cooked-up figures.”