2023-07-02 02:00:53
The ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party won 81 legislative seats and won a majority in parliament. The main opposition party (APC) considers these results “rigged” and announced that it was giving up its seat in the National Assembly.
Published on: 02/07/2023 – 04:00
The presidential party in Sierra Leone, the People’s Party (SLPP), won a majority in the legislative elections on Saturday (July 1st), according to results announced by the electoral commission.
The SLPP won 81 seats. The opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party won 54 seats, and 14 traditional leaders complete the new parliament, according to figures announced by the head of the electoral commission, Mohamed Konneh.
But the APC, led by Samura Kamara, the second presidential candidate (41.16%), declared in a press release “its non-participation at any level of governance, including the legislative power and the local councils, because the results have already been rigged to give the SLPP an unfair majority at all levels”.
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“The APC unequivocally rejects the election results (…) given the flagrant irregularities and violations of the electoral process”, he continues, presenting the current regime as a “dictatorship”.
New elections demanded
Outgoing President Julius Maada Bio was re-elected on Tuesday for a second term in the first round with 56.17% of the vote, according to results from the electoral commission which were already disputed by the opposition and local organizations.
One of the opposition figures, the outgoing mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, kept her mandate in the capital by a short head.
Samura Kamara demands the resignation of those responsible for the electoral commission and calls for new “fair and transparent” elections within six months, supervised by “credible people”.
The APC believes that the results announced do not correspond to the total number of votes cast in each polling station and claims that the results were announced even before being certified locally by the agents of the electoral commission and the political parties.
A government body in charge of security on the territory, for its part considered that the alternative results pronounced by civil society organizations and the “lack of transparency” denounced by Western countries could cause “unjustified tension” while the election took place in relative calm.
With AFP
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