Sierra Leone’s incumbent president leads election amid tense wait for final result

Sierra Leone’s incumbent president Julius Maada Bio was in the lead after the release of partial results from Saturday’s election, amid a tense wait during which at least one opposition supporter has been killed.

Mr Bio (59) who is running for the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) in the west African coastal country, had by Monday afternoon achieved 1,067,666 votes, compared to 793,751 for the next candidate, Samura Kamara (72) of the All People’s Congress (APC) party, according to the electoral commission.

The mood is tense across the country after both major parties publicly predicted victory, raising concerns about what will happen when the final results come out.

In a statement on Sunday, the SLPP’s national general secretary Umaru Napoleon Koroma said he had “indications of a landslide victory” from the party’s own internal tally.

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Meanwhile, APC leader Mr Kamara said that it was on an “irreversible path” to victory and would not accept “skewed results”.

On Sunday evening, the opposition party’s headquarters in capital city Freetown was surrounded by security forces, who shot tear gas.

A Reuters news agency reporter who was inside the headquarters saw a woman who had been severely wounded, and was in a room with a hole in the window roughly the size of a fist. An opposition party spokesperson later said she was a party volunteer who had died.

In a statement afterwards, Sierra Leonean police said they fired tear gas because APC party members were “parading” around Freetown in a “long convoy,” claiming victory, and had gathered a crowd who were “harassing” supporters of the ruling party.

Presidential candidate Mr Kamara tweeted saying the assault was an attempt to assassinate him as he held a press conference.

“People laying on the floor and the military has surrounded the building. Live bullets fired at my private office at the part[y] headquarters,” Mr Kamara said.

That same evening, the EU’s election observation mission – which sent or recruited about 100 observers – said it was “concerned about the ongoing tabulation process”.

“Considering the highly polarised political environment and prevailing mistrust, it is imperative that the electoral commission for Sierra Leone provides full transparency during the tabulation of results,” it said.

At least one person was also killed in Freetown last Wednesday, after protests were called by the opposition in relation to alleged electoral irregularities.

At a press conference at Bintumani hotel in Freetown, former Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who is heading the African Union’s election observation mission, said that despite some violence in advance of the vote, the election had gone off in a “generally peaceful and credible manner”. Mr Desalegn said he “commends the people of Sierra Leone for their… unwavering commitment to maintaining democratic stability”.

This is the fifth election in Sierra Leone – which has a population of roughly 8.4 million people – since the end of the devastating 11-year civil war in 2002.

[ Sierra Leone elections: Claims of intimidation and vote-rigging as nation of eight million-plus goes to polls ]

While Mr Bio’s government has been lauded for some of its progress, particularly abroad, he has also been accused of overseeing growing authoritarianism and violence by security forces.

At least 28 civilians, and six police officers, were killed in protests related to the cost-of-living crisis last August, with an Irish Times investigation showing that the real death toll was greater than what was officially reported.

Ishmael Beah, a writer living in Freetown who became famous internationally for his memoir about the civil war, told The Irish Times that “the early signs of democratic disruptions started in August last year with the violations of people’s rights to protest, state enforced killings of civilians and people’s freedom of speech clamped on, followed by a total absence of accountability”.

He said for peace to prevail, Sierra Leone’s civil society needs to be able to “freely express itself and share critical feedback without fear of arbitrary arrest and heightened scrutiny. Today, we’re nowhere close to such a fair system”.