Sierra Leone Decides...

7 March 2018, Freetown, Sierra Leone 

Today was a big day in Sierra Leone as voters went to cast their votes at the polling stations. Across the country 11,000 polling stations were open for voting between 7 am and 5 pm and according to the National Electoral Commission, 3,178,663 people were registered to vote. At some polling stations, people starting lining up at 2 am, at others it was later, but by 7 am, most of the stations were open to voters. The voters were each given 4 ballots to vote for Presidential, Parliamentary, Local Council and Mayoral candidates. Once the ballots were marked, they were immediately deposited into the designated ballot boxes. After polling stations closed at 5pm, the manual counting of the votes began.

The day was peaceful and there was a great atmosphere in the air. I was able to visit two polling centres and it was great to sense the excitement. From what I could see, and from what I’ve read, NEC organised the election extremely well, and in most polling stations, it has been reported that voting was carried out well.

It wasn’t until after 5pm that there was some commotion reported in a few different areas in Freetown. Apparently the police searched the premises of the main opposition leader, where he and his team were monitoring the elections, on allegations that they were hacking results. This intrusion led to commotion. Thankfully the former Ghanaian President, also head of the Commonwealth election observer mission, diffused the situation. It is of note that counting of votes is all done manually.

A time of waiting and anticipation has begun and many people will be listening to their radios over the coming days while the counting continues. NEC will announce initial results once 25% of the votes have been counted and verified.

Let’s wait patiently and peacefully. Amazing patriotism was shown today. Please continue to make Sierra Leone proud. Stand United.

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

Election eve in Sierra Leone...

It’s the eve before the elections. 

What a gorgeous sunset. 

There’s so much excitement in the air today. 

Everyone is talking about the elections. 

People are so keen to vote tomorrow.

Some people are still traveling to whichever town or city they are registered to vote.

A lot of people are scurrying about running errands.

I went to the supermarket after work today.

I’ve never seen it busier.

Many people are stocking up, just in case. 

Hopefully it’s not even necessary.

But maybe it’s better to be safe. 

It’s hard to judge what the risk is anyway. 

Some organisations made staff stay indoors today.

I’ve been going to work and other places using public transport. 

There’s no right approach except to be alert, listen for legitimate updates (there’s a lot of fake news) and be flexible. 

Right now, there’s a good vibe in the air. 

So far so good. 

I hope and pray it stays that way.

Let’s pray that tomorrow’s elections are free and fair. 

And that everyone who registered to vote can get to their polling station despite vehicle bans. 

Soon we will know who the people of Sierra Leone voted for.

The next week will be a week full of anticipation. 

Let’s pray that tomorrow, and the days following the elections are full of peace and unity.

Vote wisely Sierra Leone. 

Make your vote count.

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

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