Sierra Leone: Voters set to elect for new President on Wednesday

AFP | Sierra Leone holds a general election on Wednesday with uncertainty over the impact of new movements vying to break the stranglehold of 2 parties which have ruled since independence in 1961.

President Ernest Bai Koroma is stepping down after a decade and many feel his anointed successor cannot kick-start the diamond-rich West African nation’s economy.

Former Foreign Affairs minister Samura Kamara is campaigning as a stability candidate but will not simply follow “his master’s voice”, the outgoing president told reporter on Saturday.

The historic opponent of the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) is the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), whose candidate Julius Maada Bio has made clear it is their “turn” to hold power.

The APC will hold a final rally in Koroma’s northern hometown, Makeni, on Monday as campaigning wraps up, while the SLPP will issue its last call for voter support from their southern stronghold of Bo.

New parties

There are roughly 3.1 million registered voters. Sixteen candidates are running for president while hundreds are vying for the 132 seats in parliament as well as positions in local councils.
Partial results are expected within a few days of voting.

Whichever party wins will need to deal with the aftermath of the 2014-16 Ebola crisis, brought into sharp relief by the deaths of hundreds in a mudslide in August, and vanishing investment due to slumped commodity prices.

A new party, the National Grand Coalition (NGC), was formed by its presidential candidate Kandeh Yumkella when he broke away from the SLPP, and his message of reform is resonating with youths.

“That appeals to many Sierra Leoneans who have concluded that the old politics of the APC and SLPP have been a shackle on progress, that ethnic or regional politics undermine democratic accountability which alone would create the conditions for a meaningful transformation of the country,” noted Lansana Gberie, political analyst and author.

Another party, the Coalition for Change (C4C), is also eating into the duopoly’s support, but the NGC “represents the far bigger threat,” analyst Cberie added.

A diplomatic source in Freetown told reporters that Yumkella was recognized as a force for change in the country and could act as a kingmaker between the APC and SLPP in an eventual runoff.
However, the true contest remains between the 2 main parties, the source added.