By Katrina Manson

FREETOWN, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The opposition frontrunner in Sierra Leone's presidential election pulled out of a peace rally to have been held with his ruling party rival on Thursday, citing fears of renewed violence before a weekend run-off vote.

The opposition All People's Congress (APC), whose candidate Ernest Bai Koroma led in a first round poll, said the ruling Sierra Leone's People's Party (SLPP) was arming supporters and had denied it campaign access to a contested eastern district.

Koroma and his SLPP rival, Vice President Solomon Berewa, face a deciding second round ballot on Saturday.

Riots last week in the east of the country around Kailahun, an ethnically-mixed diamond mining area which saw some of the heaviest fighting during Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war, forced the APC campaign convoy to turn back to Freetown.

Dozens were wounded in the clashes.

"They are still amassing arms and ammunition. We believe that the security forces are under the instruction of the government," APC spokesman Alpha Kanu told Reuters.

"Our supporters have been harassed and intimidated in the east and south of the country. Some have had their voter ID cards burned in Kailahun. It's a no-go area," he said.

The polls are the first in the former British colony since United Nations peacekeepers pulled out two years ago following the end of the war. They are seen as a test of the West African nation's ability to consolidate peace and rebuild.

The SLPP strongly denied charges it was arming its supporters, in turn accusing the APC of arming its partisans with machetes and shotguns in the east.

"We who have brought about the peace for our people cannot endanger that peace," SLPP spokesman Victor Reider said.

SLPP candidate Berewa addressed crowds in the west of Freetown in the local Krio dialect, before setting off on a "peace drive" with musicians performing songs encouraging a non-violent election day.

Both candidates had been scheduled to ride in the same vehicle in the rally, but the march went ahead without Koroma.

Berewa said he would go peacefully if the vote went against him.

"If everyone say they no go vote for me I go say good bye," he said. "No double voting, no knives, no cutlasses [machetes]," he urged the crowd.

Alie Bah, a spokesman for President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, said Koroma had failed to attend a meeting late on Wednesday at the presidential lodge to discuss security concerns. Bah said Kabbah was furious at Koroma's failure to attend.

The first round polls on Aug. 11 passed off peacefully for the most part, with Koroma taking 44 percent of the vote and Berewa winning 38 percent.

Veteran politician Charles Margai, a potential kingmaker, came third with 14 percent. Margai, who defected from the SLPP when it chose Berewa as its candidate, has said he is backing Koroma in the second round. But it is unclear how many of his supporters, many of them former SLPP, will follow his lead.

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