2023-07-05 10:27:12
The day following the announcement of President Macky Sall’s decision not to run for a third term in February 2024, the opposition coalition Yéwwi Askan Wi said on July 4 that it was waiting for “other steps in the direction of the pacification of the public and political space.” The government welcomes him, “a historic first”: never a Senegalese president had organized elections for his succession without participating in this election himself.
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presidential election
President Julius Maada Bio re-elected for a second term in Sierra Leone
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
2023-06-27 20:53:32
Published on: 06/27/2023 – 22:53
Incumbent President Julius Maada Bio was re-elected in the first round for a second term as head of Sierra Leone with 56.17% of the vote, the head of the electoral commission said. His main opponent Samura Kamara comes second with 41.16% of the vote, according to the final results.
Au KenyaPresident William Ruto promulgated a finance law which establishes many new taxesannounced the presidency on Monday, despite criticism from the opposition and the population of this country affected by very high inflation. Coated Bastien Renouil
Wagner in Africa: what are the consequences?
In the Central African Republic, the minister advised by President Touadéra, Fidel Gouangika affirmed that the country had signed a contract with Moscow and not with Wagner and that if Moscow no longer agrees with Wagner then it will send a new contingent. Alex Reed: Mathieu Olivier, journalist Jeune Afrique.
The campaign for the general elections in the DRC promises to be very tense six months from the date of the election. Some experts denounce a pre-campaign where the democratic space is shrinking with the arrest of several opponents. The opposition denounces a relentlessness of power. On the majority side, we are preparing to campaign. Report by Aurélie Bazzara-Kibangula
Senegal pays tribute to the filmmaker Ousmane Sembene.
Sembene Ousmanemonument of african cinema would have been 100 years old this year. The director of the films “Camp Thiaroye” or “Guelwaar” was also a recognized and committed writer. His novels “Docker noir” or “les bouts de bois de Dieu” on the Dakar-Niger railway strike at the end of the 1940s remain in the collective memory. Throughout 2023, initiatives pay tribute to Senegall, his country of origin. Panels around his work, film club showing his feature films. His legacy lives on, including among the new generation of moviegoers. Report by Sarah Sakho, Aminatou Diallo and Mbaye Ndir.
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2023-06-26 02:39:59
In Freetown, the police announced on Sunday that they had dispersed opponents with tear gas, the day following the presidential election. Samura Kamara, rival of outgoing President Julius Maada Bio in this election, said for his part that bullets had targeted his party’s headquarters in the capital.
Published on: 06/26/2023 – 04:39
The Sierra Leonean police announced, on Sunday evening June 25, that they had used tear gas canisters to disperse opponents in Freetown, the day following the presidential election, which took place overall in calm and whose vote count continues.
Incumbent President Julius Maada Bio’s main opponent in this election, opponent Samura Kamara, said on Twitter that bullets had targeted his party’s headquarters in the capital.
Sidie Yahya Tunis, a spokesman for the All People’s Congress (APC), Samura Kamara’s party, told AFP that a woman died in the incident. “She was downstairs in the medical unit. She’s a nurse. We have a little clinic in our headquarters where she worked,” he said on Sunday evening.
Read alsoSamura Kamara, the seasoned technocrat who dreamed of taking revenge
Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, also an APC official, posted photos on Twitter from inside the formation’s headquarters that show people protecting themselves by lying on the ground. “We are at APC headquarters under fire,” she wrote.
I am in the APC Party office and we are under fire. It is tear gas and what sounds like live rounds. There are regarding 20 of us on the ground in one office. The shots are still being fired. We need help please! pic.twitter.com/W2YzU5erOw
— Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE (@yakisawyerr) June 25, 2023
Police said members of the APC were demonstrating in Freetown “announcing to the public that they had won” the elections, in a statement sent Sunday evening to AFP. These demonstrators drew a “crowd” of supporters outside the APC headquarters who “began to cause disturbance to passers-by,” she said in the statement.
“When the situation became unbearable, the police threw tear gas canisters at them to disperse the crowd which disturbed people on the public road,” she added.
The count continues
About 3.4 million people were called upon to choose between thirteen presidential candidates, a 2018 revenge-like ballot between Julius Maada Bio, a 59-year-old retired soldier who is seeking a second term, and Samura Kamura, a technocrat 72 years old and leader of the APC.
Julius Maada Bio, candidate for the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), won in the second round with 51.8% of the vote.
According to the electoral commission, the vote count continues. Results are expected within 48 hours of the vote. No figure for participation was advanced Sunday followingnoon. During the last elections, it had turned between 76 and 87%.
To be elected in the first round, a candidate must receive 55% of the valid votes.
In addition to their president, Sierra Leoneans also voted on Saturday to elect their parliament and local councils, polls marked by delays in the start of voting.
Several offices also closed late on Saturday, some at 11:30 p.m. (local and GMT), election commission chairman Mohamed Konneh said at a press conference on Sunday.
Sunday evening, the European Union electoral observation mission said it was “concerned” by the “current count”, calling for “complete transparency”. Same story on the side of the Carter Foundation, worried regarding “reports indicating a lack of transparency” during the count.
Incidents reported on Saturday
For the head of the electoral commission, Saturday was “one of the best election days” in Sierra Leone’s recent past, “if not the best”.
See alsoSierra Leone: in Freetown, slums built on the ocean
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.
However, the commission said on Saturday that poll workers had been attacked by unknown persons in some areas. Julius Maada Bio’s party has accused “senior APC officials” of attacking its electoral representatives.
APC officials, in turn, claimed that violence took place in several polling centers on Saturday night in Freetown and that its members were attacked in rural areas.
A national security official, Abdulai Caulker, said he was unaware of such incidents.
With AFP
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2023-06-24 06:55:16
The incumbent president of Sierra Leone and former retired soldier, Julius Maada Bio, candidate of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) will try on Saturday to be re-elected for a second term once morest his technocrat competitor Samura Kamara, leader of the All People’s Congress (APC).
Published on: 06/24/2023 – 08:55
Sierra Leoneans head to the polls on Saturday June 24 to elect their president, with outgoing head of state Julius Maada Bio seeking a second term in tough economic times.
About 3.4 million people are called upon to choose between 13 candidates. The offices opened at 7 a.m. (local and GMT) and will close at 5 p.m.
This presidential election is the revenge of 2018 between the 59-year-old retired soldier and his technocrat competitor Samura Kamara, 72, leader of the All People’s Congress (APC). Julius Maada Bio, candidate for the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), won in the second round with 51.8% of the vote.
Read alsoSamura Kamara, the seasoned technocrat who dreamed of taking his revenge
Since then, he has had to govern one of the poorest countries on the planet, hard hit 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, killing 27 civilians and six policemen.
Julius Maada Bio has championed education and women’s rights. He told AFP that he would prioritize agriculture and reduce his country’s dependence on food imports during a second term.
Cost of living
His main opponent, Samura Kamara, Minister of Finance and then Foreign Affairs before the advent of Julius Maada Bio in 2018, intends to restore confidence in national economic institutions and attract foreign investors, he told AFP. .
Sierra Leoneans will elect their Parliament and local councils at the same time. A third of the candidates will have to be women, under a new law.
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.
Read alsoSierra Leone: in Freetown, slums built on the ocean
“People are struggling even to afford three meals a day,” said a 19-year-old from the Cockle Bay slum in Freetown, speaking on condition of anonymity. “In addition, the government is violating our fundamental rights, starting with freedom of expression.”
After decades of unrest, coups and authoritarian rule, Sierra Leone has been electing its president since the late 1990s.
Julius Maada Bio himself was a member of a group of officers who seized power by force in 1992 and leader in 1996 of a new putsch following which he organized free elections before leaving for the UNITED STATES.
Risk of violence
Rights defenders denounce the persistence of serious abuses, including by the government or on behalf of the government. The opening in February of a corruption trial once morest Samura Kamara just following his nomination as the APC candidate has raised questions.
The outgoing mayor of the capital, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, a popular member of the APC and candidate for re-election, has also had a run-in with the law.
Analysts point out, however, that a large proportion of Sierra Leoneans are likely to determine themselves 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.
The risk of violence is one of the unknowns, although the countryside was calmer than on previous occasions in Freetown, where clashes between security forces and APC supporters broke out on Wednesday.
Macksood Gibril Sesay, a former member of the electoral commission, said he was worried that following the riots in August 2022 there was “no healing process”. “Everyone knows that elections are a time when all it takes is a spark for there to be chaos everywhere,” he said.
Disinformation abounds on both sides and social networks should exert an influence that they have never had before. Around three million people now have internet access, up from just 370,000 in 2018, Information Minister Mohamed Rahman Swaray said.
With AFP
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