President Maada Bio of Sierra Leone is maintaining an early lead in the nation’s presidential election, according to provisional results. The Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) announced it has counted approximately 60% of the total vote so far and anticipates a final declaration within the next two days.
This election has primarily been contested between President Bio, 59, of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), and Samura Kamara, 72, the former cabinet minister who leads the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party. So far, Bio has gained over a million votes, leading Kamara by over 200,000 votes, as per ECSL’s report.
Bio’s SLPP party earlier announced that it was expecting a landslide victory after an internal evaluation of its performance in the elections.
The presidential candidate must secure 55% of the total votes to be declared the winner. If this is not achieved in the initial round of voting, a run-off will be conducted between the two candidates with the highest votes.
The electoral commission reported the weekend poll to be relatively peaceful despite acknowledging minor incidents of violence and some polling delays.
On Sunday, Kamara’s APC party accused the nation’s security forces of besieging their head office in the capital Freetown, while a press conference was underway after the polls. Kamara tweeted that government forces had surrounded his party’s headquarters and fired live bullets at his private office door, labelling it as an “assassination attempt”.
In addition, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, another opposition leader seeking re-election as Freetown’s mayor, shared photos from the besieged building and wrote: “We are under fire. It is tear gas and what sounds like live rounds. We need help please!”
The police, however, accused the APC party of parading and prematurely claiming victory before an official announcement by the electoral commission. The police statement confirmed the deployment of tear gas when the “situation became unbearable,” but did not clarify if live rounds were fired at the APC’s headquarters.
Tensions remain high with allegations of electoral fraud leading up to the polls, followed by incidents of violence during a protest calling for the resignation of Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Konneh. The APC has since rejected the partial results of the presidential election, citing irregularities in the tallying process and a lack of transparency.
President Bio, in his address to the nation, urged citizens to maintain peace, even as fears persist of potential unrest following the release of the vote counts. Sierra Leone, still healing from a devastating Ebola epidemic and a brutal civil war, has been struggling with an economic downturn and persistent underemployment. Rising prices sparked violent protests last year, and the APC has been counting on this cost-of-living crisis to win votes.
Kamara had narrowly lost to Bio in the previous election in 2018. With tensions mounting, the country now waits for the final results.
Image Credit: AP Photo/TJ Bade
