Breaking news in Sierra Leone - Presidential Elections…

As of tonight, Sierra Leone will have a new President, with the swearing in taking place any time now. Congratulations Julius Maada Bio. It was a 4 week process, but we finally have an outcome. 

The first round of elections between 16 Presidential candidates was held on the 7th of March, 2018. The results were announced on the 13th of March. SLPP was in the lead with 43.3% of the votes, with APC closely behind with 42.7%. Since neither party had more than 55% or more, a run-off election was announced for the 27th March 2018. NGC had 6.9% of the votes and C4C 3.5%. The remaining 12 parties all had 1.1% or less. There was an 84% voter turnout. 

However, on the 26th March we awaited a decision by the High Court due to an interim injunction halting the runoff presidential election. Fortunately it was halted and the run-off election was allowed to go ahead, however, due to logistics that needed to be put in place, the run-off was postponed to Saturday 31 March, 2018. 

On Saturday 31 March, 2018, the run-off Presidential election was held. 2,578,271 people voted in 11,122 polling stations across the country, representing 81/11% of all registered voters.

On Monday 2 April, 2018 the tallying was halted due to a disagreement between the parties on the process used.  Later that day ballot counting and tallying continued with both parties having come to an agreement with the National Electoral Commission resolving the earlier dispute about which system to use. 

On 4 April, 2018, just after 10 pm, the National Electoral Commission announced that Bio Julius Made, having polled 51.81% of the valid votes cast on the 31st March 2018 Presidential election run-off, has been duly elected President of the Republic of Sierra Leone. 

There has been a lot of cheering, singing, whistle blowing, banging of pot covers tonight as many Sierra Leoneans are out in the streets celebrating. Let's hope for continued peace and for good conduct amongst people from various political parties. Hopefully everyone will graciously accept the election results. The people have spoken.

Congratulations Sierra Leone on conducting a peaceful, fair and transparent election. The people have decided and effected change. Let’s work together for the good of the country. Be positive. One country, one people. 🇸🇱💚

#SierraLeoneDecides #SierraLeoneElections #sierraleone #votesalone #salonevotes #keepthepeace #slppwins #onecountryonepeople

Sierra Leone election results...

Sierra Leone Election News. Freetown, Sierra Leone: The last 24 hours have been a little tense in Sierra Leone as we have been waiting for the results to be announced from the presidential election held on 7 March 2018. 

There was a lot of anticipation on the 12th of March 2018 with the hopes that the results would be announced by the National Electoral Commission (NEC). There were rumors that they would communicate at 14:00 hrs, then 16:00 hrs, then 19:00 hrs. However, the announcement did not take place and instead we were informed that ballot papers were going to be recounted at 72 polling stations in various districts. This was in addition to recounts in 82 polling stations, announced the previous day. These recounts were being conducted after deliberations with political parties. 

During the day on the 13th of March there were more rumours that the results would be announced. Finally at 16:30 hours, NEC announced that there would be a briefing held at a press conference at 19:00 hrs today. 

At 19:00 hrs today thousands of people in Sierra Leone were tuned in to their radios, waiting in suspense for NEC's announcement. Finally, at 19:46 hrs, NEC announced the election results for the presidential election with the opposition party, SLPP, leading with 43.3% of the votes and the ruling party, APC, closely behind with 42.7%. Since neither party has 55% or more of the votes, a run-off election will be held on 27 March 2018, two weeks from today.  NGC has 6.9% of the votes, C4C 3.5% and the remaining 12 parties all have 1.1% or less. 

NEC reports that the results from 221 polling stations were excluded, including stations where votes cast exceeded the number of registered voters at those stations.  Also, after deliberations with political parties, recounts were conducted in 154 polling stations, none of these results were nullified. 

There were 3,178,663 people registered to vote, of which 2,676,549 people voted (with 139,427 invalid votes), meaning there was a 84.2% voter turnout on 7 March 2018. 

Well done Sierra Leone for conducting a credible election. Let's continue to keep the peace in the lead up to the run-off and the transition of power to whoever is elected as the next President of Sierra Leone. 

National Electoral Commission results: 13 March 2018

#SierraLeoneDecides #SierraLeoneElections #sierraleone #keepthepeace #undivided #votesalone #presidentialelections #NEC #votesalone

Stroll down memory lane: 2007 & 2012 elections...

With less than 24 hours to go until polling stations open in Sierra Leone, I thought I would take us down election memory lane, looking at the two elections I experienced in Sierra Leone in 2007 and 2012.

2007 Presidential election…

11 August 2007: the Presidential elections took place – 7 contenders, 2.6 million people registered to vote, half of which were below 35 years old. The polling stations opened late due to delays of ballot paper deliveries, likely due to heavy rainfall the night before. People lined up as early as 5 am to vast their vote. By evening, in the neighbourhood I lived in at the time, there was already a lot of cheering as their votes had been counted and they knew which party was in the lead at their voting station. Elsewhere in the city there were some disturbances, but nothing serious.

16 August 2007: 34.3% of the 6171 polling stations reported their results. There was a lot of fluctuation in who was taking the lead.

21 August 2007: 93% of the polling stations reported their results, with APC ahead at 44% and SLL following at 38%.

25 August 2007: 14 days after the election, the results of the 1,839,208 votes were announced at 10:00 am as follows: APC 44.34%, SLPP 38.28% and PMDC 13.89% Since no single party won more than 55% of the votes in the first-round, a run-off election was scheduled between the top two candidates.

In the lead up to the run-off elections, more campaigning took place. There was some unrest during this in-between stage, both in Freetown and up-country, in particular Kono, Kenema and Bo districts. Nothing major, however, both parties did agree to hold a peace rally to demonstrate their commitment to a peaceful run-off.

6 September 2007: Peace rally held

8 September 2007: Run-off election was held between APC and SLPP candidates.

11 September 2007: 22.2% of 4793 polling stations processed their results, with preliminary results as follows: APC 64% and SLPP 36%. Counting continued.

17 September 2007: At 10:00 am NEC announced that Ernest Bai Koroma won the presidential run-off. With 54.6% of the 1,740,058 votes, and the SLPP party receiving 45.4% of the votes.

2012 Presidential election…

17 November 2012: Presidential elections were held. Interestingly, on that day there was a vehicle ban in place – this has been demanded again by the Sierra Leone Police for the 2018 elections, however, the ban is being contested in High Court today, the day before the elections.

19 November 2012: 75% of the results from polling stations (9492 total) have been processed.

21 November 2012: There were rumours going around that the results would be announced, however, that didn’t happen and 90% of the votes had been processed. At 8:00 pm there was an announcement but it was NEC’s response to various allegations by the two political parties.

23 November 2012: At 18:25 hours the official presidential election results were announced: APC 58.7%, SLPP 37.4%, PMDC 1.3%, CDP 1% and there were a few other parties holding less than 1% of the votes. Shortly after this announcement President Ernest Bai Koroma delivered his swearing-in speech at State House.

I enjoyed a stroll down election memory lane. If you are interested, look at blog posts from August and September 2007 and November 2012:
http://sandralako.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
http://sandralako.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

http://sandralako.blogspot.com/2012/11/

We have less than 24 hours to go before the polling stations open.

Sierra Leone: vote wisely and keep the peace.

#sierraleonevotes #presidentialelection #sierraleoneelection #electionsinsierraleone #sierraleone #undivided #keepthepeace

Sierra Leone elections: Official results...

At around 18:25 hrs the official presidential election results were announced:

Click this link to view detail of the Statement from NEC Chairperson on the conduct and result of the Presidential Elections held on 17th November 2012

.NATIONAL RESULTS

Candidate	Party	Votes	Percentage
KOROMA, ERNEST BAI	APC	1 314 881	58.7%
CAREW, JOSHUA ALBERT	CDP	22 863	1.0%
KAMARA, GIBRILLA	PDP	8 273	0.4%
CONTEH, KANDEH BABA	PLP	6 144	0.3%
MARGAI, CHARLES FRANCIS	PMDC	28 944	1.3%
COLLINS, ELDRED	RUFP	12 993	0.6%
BIO, JULIUS MAADA	SLPP	837 517	37.4%
BANGURA, MOHAMED	UDM	5 069	0.2%
FULLAH, JAMES OBAI	UNPP	5 044	0.2%

In exercise of the powers conferred on the Returning Officer by section 52 of the Public Elections Act, 2012, I hereby certify that 1,314,881 valid votes were cast in favour of the candidate ERNEST BAI KOROMA at that election:

AND ERNEST BAI KOROMA therefore received 58.7% of valid votes cast in the election

ERNEST BAI KOROMA has been duly elected president of the Republic of Sierra Leone at the Presidential election of 2012.

Any citizen of Sierra Leone may challenge the validity of the election of the president by petition to the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone, within seven days after the declaration of the presidential results.

Signed:
Dr. Christiana Thorpe
Chief Electoral Commissioner/Chairperson
National Returning Officer

http://www.nec-sierraleone.org/

Sierra Leone elections: Christiana live...

18:20 hours: At this moment I am sitting on the balcony with my colleague, listening to the radio. We were told the election results would be announced at 17:30 hrs. It's now 18:21 hrs and we are listening to Christiana Thorpe. 

She is about to make the announcement.

More soon.

Sierra Leone elections: Official update...

At 8 pm there was an official announcement on the radio made by Dr Christiana Thorpe. The announcement had to do with NEC's response to various allegations by two political parties, rather than an announcement of the final election results. For more details on the allegations, read the pdf version here: UPDATE ON ELECTION RESULTS TALLYING AT REGIONAL TALLY CENTERS,(PDF VERSION)

There was an update on the election results and tallying at regional tally centers, which was as follows: The Commission hereby wishes to inform the general public that 99% of all polling stations results have now being received at the Regional Tally Centers in Kenema, Makeni, Bo and Freetown. Out of the 9,493 polling stations, 90% of (8,544) polling station results have been processed. The Remaining 10% of polling station results have been quarantined and may require opening of affected ballot boxes and recount of the ballot papers.

http://www.nec-sierraleone.org/

Sierra Leone elections: Waiting for results...

The rumor going around this afternoon was that the presidential election results would be announced at 5 pm today. Then 6 pm. Then 7 pm. It is now 7:36 pm and nothing has been announced. Ugh. And I was supposed to go out tonight. Not sure if I should still go with a small chance they may still announce results, or stay put and be 100% safe. I wish they would officially announce when they will officially announce the results. This could go on for days. The problem is, I think that if they do announce it in the evening, they would probably enforce a curfew as well, in which case I wouldn't want to be stuck out. Oh elections. I shouldn't complain. As long as everything stays peaceful, I should be happy. Soon it will all be over and life will carry on as usual. Please pray for peace and that the two main parties will be gracious and that they will accept the results. Stay tuned...

SL elections: Yes, I snuck out...

Yes, I snuck out on Saturday November 17th, 2012, the day of the presidential elections in Sierra Leone. My colleague and I assessed the situation and deemed it safe to leave the compound and walk 5 minutes up the road to the polling station. The village was interesting. There were about 50 people gathered around the big tree chatting. It was the only place we could see vendors selling cucumbers, fruit, fish and groundnuts. They had obviously planned their site well. And then there were a couple of voting stations with about 30 people waiting in line to vote. It looked orderly and there was a good atmosphere. I saw one of the guys I know from our area and he said hi. He showed me his dyed finger, proving that he voted, as well as his 'clipped' voters ID card. Everyone was given 4 ballots: one for presidential, one for parliamentary, one for local council chair/mayor and one for local council councillor. The voters told me it was pretty straight forward. There were a couple of police officers around and now and then a vehicle would drive up with 'national observers' in them. What was remarkable was that no one was wearing the colors of the two main political parties - there was no red or green in sight! Apparently it had been announced the previous day that people were not to go and vote wearing party colors. Going down towards the other end of the road we were surprised at how quiet it was. I have never seen the roundabout and streets surrounding it so empty. It looked like a ghost town.

Sierra Leone elections: Tallying process...

UPDATE ON ELECTION RESULTS TALLYING AT REGIONAL TALLY CENTERS,(PDF VERSION)

On Monday 19th November 2012, the Chief Electoral Commissioner and National Returning Officer made an on the spot visit to Regional Tally Centers in Bo, Kenema and Makeni to monitor ongoing tallying of elections results by courtesy of UNIPSIL.Since the commencement of the result tallying process on the night of Saturday 17th November 2012, the exercise has been conducted on a 24 hour basis by three sets of data center staff on three shifts of eight hours each. Political Parties, National Elections Watch (NEW), other national and international observers that were accredited are observing the process.

Out of a total of 9,493 polling stations 7,175 polling station results (75%) are now being processed.

Eastern Region
The Eastern Region has a total of 1,985 polling stations. Results for 1,511 have been received and are now being processed.

Northern Region
The Northern Region has a total of   3,302 polling stations. Results for 2,055 stations are now being processed.

Southern Region
The Southern Region has a total of 1,908 polling stations Results for 1,402 polling stations are now being processed.

Western Region 
Out of a total of  2,298 polling stations, results for  2,207  are now being processed.

Two Political Parties, All Peoples Congress and Sierra Leone Peoples Party agents have been in attendance to observe the tallying process.

Based on the progress of receipt and tallying of elections results in all regional tally centers, official declaration of elections results will commence within the next few days.

http://www.nec-sierraleone.org/

Sierra Leone Elections: NEC statement...

In the link below you can find an official statement from the National Electoral Commission in Sierra Leone.

CLOSE OF POLLING DAY PRESS RELEASE - SUNDAY 18TH NOVEMBER, 2012 (PDF VERSION)

Here are some of the highlights (in my opinion as summarized from the above press release):

• Polling officially closed at 5:00 PM in 98% of polling stations nationwide. However, voting went on in the remaining centers after the close of polls. In most cases this was due to larger voter turnout, late commencement of polls and technical problems. 
• Generally, polling was reported to be orderly and peaceful in almost all polling stations nationwide. 
• In Kambia District polling was disrupted in ward 135 due to honey bees! The polling station was relocated and polling went on peacefully.
• In two wards in the Western region, voting was disrupted due to election malpractices. Arrests were made.
• Reconciliation and counting of ballots commenced immediately after close of polls at polling station level. After counting of ballots, copies of relevant result forms were handed over to all political party agents and observers present for each election in all the polling stations.
• Results in Tamper Evident Envelops from polling stations were collected by polling centre managers at centre level and handed over to the relevant ward coordinators for onward delivery to NEC officials at districts and regional tally centers. Tallying of elections results commenced immediately as elections results were received.
• The elections results from polling stations in the Western Area were received at the Regional Tally Center, Wellington at 3:40 AM on 18th November 2012. Imputing of data began immediately and is ongoing.

http://www.nec-sierraleone.org/

Sierra Leone elections: Voting don don...

Instructions seen around town

It's 5:30 pm. Voting stations have closed. As far as I can tell it's peaceful outside, at least in Wilberforce. I have not had phone calls, emails or text messages telling me otherwise. Lumley calmed down and my friend voted by about 10:00 am. I even snuck out of the house with a colleague and walked up and down our road - first to the village where the voting stations are and then down to the roundabout 'Bottom Mango'. 

The village was interesting. There were about 50 people gathered around the big tree chatting. There were some vendors selling cucumbers, fruit, fish and groundnuts. And then there were a couple of voting stations with about 30 people waiting in line to vote. It looked orderly and there was a good atmosphere. I saw one of the guys I know from our area and he said hi. He showed me his dyed finger, proving that he voted, as well as his 'clipped' voters ID card. Everyone was given 4 ballots: one for presidential, one for parliamentary, one for local council chair/mayor and one for local council councillor. The voters told me it was pretty straight forward. There were a couple of police officers around and now and then a vehicle would drive up with 'national observers' in them. What was remarkable was that no one was wearing the colors of the two main political parties - there was no red or green in sight! Going down towards Bottom mango we were surprised at how quiet it was. I have never seen the roundabout and streets surrounding it so empty. It looked like a ghost town.

Now the voting is over, it's time to wait for the results to trickle out and then the final results to be announced officially, which can take up to 10 days. Keep praying for peace. 

Sierra Leone elections: Election morning...

7:05 am Going to vote in Wilberforce

4:45 am - I asked a friend to let me know when he goes to vote. He calls saying he is waiting in line at his voting center in Lumley. There are hundreds of people waiting already.

6:32 am - I talk to my friend again. I can tell there are a lot of people. The place sounds very noisy. Only 28 minutes to go. On my street I only see one or two people heading to the village.

6:56 am - The voting stations are about to open. I look onto my street and see small groups of people heading up to the village. The voting station is in the community center. It’s only about a 5 minute walk from my house.

7:00 am - Voting polls are scheduled to open. I assume they have.

7:31 am - I call my friend in Lumley again. The centre opened but they started calling for those with last names starting with a certain letter to come forward. Everyone is confused. The line broke and it became somewhat chaotic. My friend tells me the authorities are sorting it out. He's waited there for 2 1/2 hours and will continue to wait until he has voted and then head home.

9:25 am - Wilberforce is still calm. I can see people coming back from the community centre. They seem happy to have voted. Meanwhile, others are still making their way up to the centre. Osman calls again. Lumley is still crazy. A new line has been formed but it seems like they are still not doing a first come first served voting system. Hopefully they sort it out. It doesn't sound like there is any violence, it just sounds unorganized.

10:04 am - No news. Everythings seems to be going on as usual. Children playing on the street. A compound playing loud music. Little shops selling goods. In the compound opposite mine the men are tuned in to the radio, listening to what is happening around the country. 

For the most part I think expatriates are staying indoors today as a precaution. I know some people will likely head out later in the day or definitely tomorrow. Others have a three-day lock down. I'm in today and will work on an audit, and do some cleaning and baking. Tomorrow, I'll be outdoors again, unless we are officially told to do otherwise. There is a vehicle ban today so I suspect the streets are fairly empty, other than lines of voters. Stay peaceful Salone.

Sierra Leone elections: Independent Observer...

Taken from the Independent Observer 16 November 2012

Sierra Leone elections: reflecting back to 2007...

In 2007 I was also here for the presidential elections. I was just looking at some of my blog posts from that time. I hadn't remembered how close the votes actually were. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if we have a run-off again. We'll know within two weeks of the voting. I also forgot about some mild unrest in town in the run up to the run offs. And the announcement of a peace rally held two days prior to the run-offs. And that we had to stay on the compound after the run-offs before the results were announced, for a day due to some unrest.

In 2007 it took 14 days for the first results to be announced, and they were as follows: APC 44.34%, SLPP 38.28% and PMDC 13.89% It took another two weeks for the run off elections. The run-off results were: APC 54.6% and SLPP 45.4% 

I enjoyed a stroll down election memory lane. If you are interested, look at blog posts from August and September 2007:
http://sandralako.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
http://sandralako.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

PS: I JUST RECEIVED A PHONE CALL FROM OSMAN IN THE STADIUM AND COULD HEAR THE SLPP VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, KADIE SESAY DELIVERING HER SPEECH AND EVERYONE CHEERING!!!