In Sierra Leone, the opposition deplores the death of a woman as the presidential count continues

Sierra Leonean police announced on the evening of Sunday, June 25, that they had used tear gas canisters to disperse opponents in Freetown, the capital, the day after the presidential election, which took place generally peacefully and whose count voices continues. Incumbent President Julius Maada Bio’s main opponent in this election, opponent Samura Kamara, said on Twitter that bullets targeted his party’s headquarters in the capital.

Sidie Yahya Tunis, a spokesman for the All People’s Congress (APC), Mr. Kamara’s party, told AFP that a woman died in the incident. “She was downstairs in the medical unit. She is a nurse. We have a small dispensary in our headquarters where she worked,” he said Sunday night of the announcement that could not be immediately verified.

Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, also an APC official, posted photos on Twitter from inside the formation’s headquarters showing people protecting themselves by lying on the ground. “We are at APC headquarters under fire,” she wrote.

Police said APC members were protesting in Freetown “announcing to the public that they had won” the elections, in a statement issued to AFP on Sunday evening. These protesters drew outside APC headquarters “a crowd” of supporters 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 that disturbed people on the public road,” she added.

Revenge

About 3.4 million people were called upon to choose between thirteen candidates for the presidential election, a 2018 revenge-like ballot between Mr. Bio, a 59-year-old retired soldier who is seeking a second term, and Mr. Kamura , 72-year-old technocrat and leader of the APC. Mr. Bio, candidate of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), then won the second round with 51.8% of the vote.

According to the electoral commission, the vote count continues. The results are expected within 48 hours of the vote. No figures for participation were advanced on Sunday afternoon. In the last elections, it had turned between 76% and 87%.

This year, Mr. Bio has championed education and women’s rights. He told AFP to prioritize agriculture and reduce his country’s dependence on food imports.

Mr. Kamara, Minister of Finance and then of Foreign Affairs before the advent of Mr. Bio in 2018, told AFP that he wanted to restore confidence in national economic institutions and attract foreign investors.

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.

“One of the best election days”

Several offices also closed late on Saturday, some at 11:30 p.m. (local and GMT), Electoral Commission Chairman Mohamed Konneh said at a press conference on Sunday. On Sunday evening, the European Union Election Observation Mission said it was “concerned” about the “ongoing count”, calling for “full transparency”. Same story on the side of the Carter Foundation, worried about “reports indicating a lack of transparency” during the count. 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”.

The West African Peacebuilding Network, another observer group, said on Saturday that the vote was “relatively peaceful”, echoing a similar finding from the Electoral Commission. The latter, however, indicated on Saturday that electoral agents had been attacked by unknown persons in certain areas. Mr. Bio’s party has accused “senior officials” of the APC of attacking its electoral representatives.

APC officials in turn claimed that violence took place at several polling centers on Saturday night in Freetown and its members attacked in rural areas. A national security official, Abdulai Caulker, said he was unaware of any such incidents.

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% year on year in this West African country of 8 million people.

Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries on the planet, has been hard hit in recent years 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 that killed 27 civilians and six policemen.