President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone has been declared the winner of the presidential election in the country. The final results were announced on Tuesday, June 27.
Bio managed to avoid a run-off with his main opponent, Samura Kamara, by securing 56% of the votes. Kamara polled about 41%. According to Sierra Leone’s electoral law, in order to win in the first round, a candidate needs more than 55% of the vote.
The Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ESCL) had earlier announced on Monday that the incumbent president took an early lead with 60% of the total votes counted.
The election was a two-horse race between President Bio, 59, and 72-year-old former cabinet minister Samura Kamara, who leads the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party. Bio was running for re-election after a first term of five years that was characterised by inflation, and high cost of living but also witnessed some important strides in social and infrastructural development.
Witnesses reported incidences of violence in some parts during the general elections, especially in opposition strongholds in the northern districts. There were reports on Sunday that the police fired tear gas at the headquarters of the APC in Freetown as voters awaited the results.
Mr. Kamara said on Twitter that live bullets were fired at his office inside the party headquarters. The police in a statement, however, said members of the APC had paraded through Freetown, “announcing to the public that they had won the election”, even after the Office of National Security had earlier warned party members against declaring the result of the elections, a responsibility it said, lies with the electoral umpire.
In its preliminary observations report, the European Union Election Observation Mission(EOM) in Sierra Leone stated that “Voters’ commitment to a democratic process (was) challenged by violence and lack of transparency at critical stages of elections.”
However, the Commonwealth Observer Group in Sierra Leone, in its preliminary report, welcomed the large turn-out of voters and “a generally peaceful” polling day, despite heightened tensions.
Announcing the Group’s preliminary findings, the Chair of the Commonwealth Observer Group, H.E. Prof. Yemi Osinbajo said; “We were impressed by the significant turn-out of voters and the largely peaceful conduct of elections – a testimony to the will of the people to consolidate the democratic gains of Sierra Leone. It was observed that election actors conducted themselves as expected on election day”.
