Sierra Leone's 24 June 2023 election was scheduled to run from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Yet the EU observation mission recorded ten polling stations closing after the designated time because of long queues. Electoral Commission guidance said voters already standing in line at 5 p.m. could still vote, while arrivals after the marked end of the queue could not join.
Under that rule, the deadline was not defined by the clock alone. The final person in line at 5 p.m. became the visible boundary between an existing right to vote and a late arrival. The queue was both a result of congestion and a device for preserving entitlement at the closing time.