Incumbent President Julius Maada Bio is running for a second and last term in an election on Saturday, and almost 3.4 million Sierra Leoneans are registered to vote. Across the West African state that is experiencing tremendous unemployment, high levels of inflation, and a depreciating currency, voters will also elect members of parliament and municipal councilors. Protests over rising living costs erupted in Freetown and other northern cities in August 2022, leading in over 20 deaths when security forces opened fire on demonstrators.
This is the country’s sixth presidential election since the end of the civil war that raged from 1991 to 2002, during which over 50,000 people lost their lives, hundreds were injured, and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee their homes. Among the 13 candidates for president, 59-year-old Bio is widely considered to be in the lead. Samura Kamara, a member of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC), is Bio’s strongest opponent. Kamara barely lost to Bio in the 2018 election. Kandeh Yumkella, who finished third in 2018 but isn’t running this time around, has publicly declared his support for the president. Election-related violence targeting the opposition has erupted near bastions of the ruling party in the southeast, despite mostly quiet campaigning. Kamara stated, “They keep attacking us… by destroying our campaign posters and attacking our supporters.” Kamara further mentioned that his party headquarters was burned down in the southern city of Bo and that his convoy was ambushed in another area. Meanwhile, the ruling party has voiced concern over attacks on its supporters in the opposition’s northern stronghold and the southern Pujehun area.
The campaign’s use of aggressive language by the two major parties has shocked some people. Kamara demanded the resignation of the electoral commissioners last week, claiming that his party had no faith in their abilities to ensure fair elections. The APC party has met with the organization in charge of overseeing the elections and has threatened to mobilize its members to take to the streets on Wednesday if its demands are not satisfied. The parties have been in negotiations to keep the matter from escalating further. Kamara’s party has been critical of Bio’s economic policies and pricing increases while campaigning. Economic difficulties have been attributed by the ruling party to global events like the coronavirus outbreak and the conflict in Ukraine. If after the first ballot no candidate receives more than 55 percent of the valid votes cast, the top two candidates will compete in a run-off election two weeks later.
