2023-06-25 13:14:26
The counting of votes continued on Sunday in Sierra Leone the day after the presidential election, where the outgoing Julius Maada Bio is seeking a second term against his main rival Samura Kamara, and legislative and local elections.
Regional ballot counting continued in the capital Freetown, Bo (west), Makeni and Port Loko (north), the electoral commission said.
Results are expected within 48 hours of the vote.
Around 3.4 million people were called upon to choose between 13 presidential candidates, a 2018 revenge-like ballot between Mr. Bio, a 59-year-old retired soldier, and Mr. Kamura, a 72-year-old technocrat. and leader of the All People’s Congress (APC).
Mr. Bio, candidate of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), then won the second round with 51.8% of the vote.
To be elected in the first round, a candidate must receive 55% of the valid votes.
A poll carried out on June 14 by the Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) gave Mr. Bio the winner in the first round with 56% of the vote against 43% for Mr. Kamara.
In addition to their president, Sierra Leoneans also voted on Saturday to elect their parliament and local councils, polls marked by delays in the opening of many polling stations in Freetown.
In the provinces, more than 90% of the polling stations had opened on Saturday about an hour after the start of the vote, scheduled for 7 a.m. (local and GMT) and until 5 p.m., according to observers from a civil society coalition.
No figure for participation was advanced Sunday at midday. During the last elections, it had turned between 76 and 87%.
“Quiet” polls
The West African Network for Peacebuilding, another observer group, said on Saturday that the vote was “relatively peaceful”, echoing a similar finding from the electoral commission.
But after polling stations closed, election officials moving voting materials were attacked by unidentified people in some areas of the country, the election commission said in a statement, without specifying a location.
Officials from the main opposition party, APC, also claimed that violence took place in several polling centers on Saturday evening in Freetown.
The high cost of living is the common concern of a very large majority of Sierra Leoneans. Prices of staples like rice have skyrocketed. Inflation in March was 41.5% over one year in this West African country of eight million inhabitants.
Analysts point out, however, that a large proportion of Sierra Leoneans should be determined much more by regional affiliations than by the price of foodstuffs or respect for rights, and will calculate that money and work will go to the regions whose representatives will be associated with the winner of the presidential election.
Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries on the planet, has been hard hit in recent years by Covid-19 and then the war in Ukraine.
The former British colony was already struggling to recover from a bloody civil war (1991-2002) and the Ebola epidemic (2014-2016).
Inflation and exasperation with the government sparked riots in August 2022 that left 27 civilians and six policemen dead.
These elections in Sierra Leone are closely followed in West Africa, a region where coups have taken place in recent months in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
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