This Saturday, three million voters will choose their new president, Parliament, and municipal councils at the polls. Outgoing President Julius Maada Bio is seeking a second term against twelve other candidates, but the match will be between him and his main opponent Samura Kamara, the man he narrowly beat five years ago.
A total of 13 candidates will be in the running, but this presidential election will be a new face-to-face between outgoing President Julius Maada Bio and Samura Kamara, a former finance minister at the head of the People’s Party. The Head of State boasts of having introduced free schools and of having promoted women’s rights. In particular, he intends to carry out his progressive measures such as the abolition of the death penalty and a law on gender equality.
Last April, Sierra Leone saw inflation soar to over 43%. Precisely, it is on this point that Kamara is betting, who, for his part, promises to restore confidence and attract investors. The technocrat has rightly campaigned on the recovery of the economy and plans to reorganize agriculture and the mining sector as well as restore confidence in the local currency to stop the devaluation.
The winner needs 55% of the vote to claim victory in the first round, otherwise, there will be a second round within two weeks.
The main opposition party, the APC, has recently increased the tension of the election by demanding the resignation of the president of the Electoral Commission. This has raised the risk of violence for this vote.
On Wednesday, clashes erupted during an APC demonstration, killing two people according to the party. The same day, the headquarters of the group was set on fire “in an act of intimidation”, denounced Samura Kamara, the president of the APC.
Another factor that fuels the fears of the population is the dissemination of hate messages on social networks, targeting certain ethnic groups. Messages which “undermine peace in this country ravaged by a brutal civil war”, estimated the national agency in charge of security issues.