FREETOWN, Sierra Leone -- Provisional results published Tuesday by Sierra Leone's election body indicates that the party of incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma won a majority of seats in parliament in the Nov. 17 general election.

According to Christiana Thorpe, chairwoman of the National Electoral Commission, Koroma's party won 67 of the 112 seats, while the country's main opposition party, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party, won 42 seats.

The remaining three seats have not yet been declared, due to court challenges and the death of one of the candidates just before the election.

Koroma won re-election with more than 57 per cent of the vote, prompting his main opponent to say he may challenge the outcome.

The Nov. 17 election is only the third since the end of Sierra Leone's disastrous civil war in 2002.