Sierra Leone: The presidential party wins the majority in the general election

The ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party won 81 legislative seats and won a majority in parliament. These results are contested by the main opposition party (APC), which, considering them “real”, announced it was giving up its seat in the National Assembly.

Sierra Leone’s presidential People’s Party (SLPP) won a majority in Saturday’s (July 1) general election, according to results released by the Electoral Commission.

The SLPP won 81 seats. The opposition party All People’s Congress (APC) won 54 seats and 14 traditional leaders complete the new parliament, according to figures announced by the head of the Electoral Commission, Mohamed Konneh.

But the APC, led by Samura Kamara, the second presidential candidate (41.16%), declared in a press release “its non-participation at any level of governance, including the legislature and the local councils, because the results have already been cheated. to give the SLPP an unfair majority at all levels”.

“APC unequivocally rejects the election result (…) given the obvious irregularities and violations of the electoral process”, he continues, presenting the current regime as a “dictatorship”.

New election required

Outgoing President Julius Maada Bio was re-elected on Tuesday for a second term in the first round with 56.17% of the vote, according to results from the Electoral Commission, which were already disputed by the opposition and local organizations.

One of the opposition figures, the outgoing mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, kept her mandate in the capital with a short head.

Samura Kamara is demanding the resignation of those in charge of the electoral commission and calling for new “fair and transparent” elections within six months, overseen by “credible people”.

The APC believes that the announced results do not correspond to the total number of votes cast in each polling station and claims that the results were announced even before they were verified locally by the Electoral Commission and political party agents.

A government body in charge of security in the territory, for its part, believed that the alternative results expressed by civil society organizations and the “lack of transparency” condemned by Western countries could cause “unfounded tension” while the election took place in relative calm.

AFP