AKIPRESS.COM - Sierra Leone elected as president an opposition politician who briefly ruled the West African nation as head of a junta during the civil war in the 1990s, Bloombergreports.

Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s Party was declared the winner on Wednesday of a presidential run-off by the electoral commission after receiving 51.81 percent of ballots cast against 48.19 percent for his opponent, Samura Kamara, of the All People’s Congress. Maada Bio, 53, will face the tough challenge of reviving an economy that’s struggling to recover from the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola and an iron-ore slump.

During his campaign, Maada Bio pledged to fight corruption and create jobs. The vote was the second time Maada Bio ran for the presidency as head of the main opposition SLPP. As a young soldier in 1992, he helped topple the then-ruling APC in a bloodless coup before overthrowing his friend and military leader Valentine Strasser four years later. His junta handed over power following democratic elections that year.

Sierra Leone has experienced many upheavals since independence from Britain in 1961, most notably its 1991-2002 civil war. In 2012, the country was sub-Saharan Africa’s fastest-growing economy as iron ore took over from diamonds as its biggest export. But the double shock of a commodity price slump and the Ebola epidemic the following year triggered a sharp downturn.

The government’s also dealing with the aftermath of a huge mudslide in Freetown last year that killed about 1,100 people.