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 Sierra Leoneportal |
General elections were held in Sierra Leone on 15 May 1973. The result was a victory for the All People's Congress, which won 84 of the 85 elected seats. However, the main opposition, the Sierra Leone People's Party boycotted the election due to violence and alleged irregularities, [1] and most APC candidates were elected unopposed.
| Party | Seats | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|
| All People's Congress | 84 | +52 | |
| Independents | 1 | –5 | |
| Paramount chiefs | 12 | 0 | |
| Total | 97 | +19 | |
| Source: African Elections Database | |||
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Its land area is 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi). It has a tropical climate and environments ranging from savannas to rainforests. As of the 2015 census, Sierra Leone had a population of 7,092,113. Freetown is both its capital and its largest city. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are further subdivided into 16 districts.
Sierra Leone first became inhabited by indigenous African peoples at least 2,500 years ago. The Limba were the first tribe known to inhabit Sierra Leone. The dense tropical rainforest partially isolated the region from other West African cultures, and it became a refuge for peoples escaping violence and jihads. Sierra Leone was named by Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra, who mapped the region in 1462. The Freetown estuary provided a good natural harbour for ships to shelter and replenish drinking water, and gained more international attention as coastal and trans-Atlantic trade supplanted trans-Saharan trade.
Sierra Leone is a country located in West Africa, known officially as the Republic of Sierra Leone.
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and political centre, as it is the seat of the Government of Sierra Leone. The population of Freetown was 1,347,559 as of the 2024 census.
Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was a Sierra Leonean politician who served twice as the 3rd President of Sierra Leone, from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007. An economist and attorney by profession, Kabbah spent many years working for the United Nations Development Programme. He retired from the United Nations and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992.
The Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) is one of the two major political parties in Sierra Leone, along with its main political rival the All People's Congress (APC). It has been the ruling party in Sierra Leone since 4 April 2018. The SLPP dominated Sierra Leone's politics from its foundation in 1951 to 1967, when it lost the 1967 parliamentary election to the APC, led by Siaka Stevens. Originally a centre-right, conservative party, it identifies since 2012 as a centre-left social democratic party, with a centrist tendency.
Siaka Probyn Stevens was the leader of Sierra Leone from 1967 to 1985, serving as Prime Minister from 1967 to 1971 and as President from 1971 to 1985. Stevens' leadership was often characterized by patrimonial rule and self-indulgence, consolidating power by means of corruption and exploitation.
Elections in Sierra Leone are held on a national level to elect the president and the unicameral Parliament. Sierra Leone has a multi-party system, with two or three strong parties.
Based on the 2021 national mid-term census, Kenema has a population of 255,110. making it the second most populous city in Sierra Leone after Freetown, and the largest city in the country's Eastern Province. Kenema City servers as capital of Kenema District and is a major economic hub in the Eastern Province. Kenema is located approximately 200 miles from Freetown, and 60 kilometres (40 mi) south of Bo.
Koidu Town is the capital and largest city of the Kono District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its population is 128,030 based on the 2015 census. It is the fifth largest city in Sierra Leone by population, after Freetown, Kenema, Bo and Makeni. It lies approximately 280 miles east of Freetown, and about 60 miles north of Kenema.
Julius Maada Wonie Bio is a Sierra Leonean politician who has served as president of Sierra Leone since 4 April 2018. He is a retired brigadier in the Sierra Leone Army and was the military head of state of Sierra Leone from 16 January 1996 to 29 March 1996, in a military junta government known as the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC).
Bo District is a district in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. It is one of the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone. Bo District is the second most populous district in Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is the city of Bo, which is also the second most populous city in Sierra Leone. Other major towns in the district include Baoma, Bumpeh, Serabu, Sumbuya, Baiima and Yele.
Bonthe District is a district that comprises several islands and mainland of the Atlantic Ocean in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. Bonthe is one of the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone. Its capital is the town of Bonthe Island and its largest city is Bonthe, on Sherbro Island. As of the 2015 census, the district had a population of 200,730. Bonthe District is one of the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone. Bonthe District is subdivided into eleven chiefdoms.
Parliament of Sierra Leone is the legislative branch of the government of Sierra Leone. It is principally responsible for making laws. The Sierra Leone parliament consists of 149 members, of which 135 members are directly elected from across Sierra Leone's 16 districts, while 14 are paramount chiefs appointed from the 14 rural districts. The parliament is led by the Speaker of the House; the position is currently held by Abass Bundu of the Sierra Leone People's Party. The current elected 135 ordinary members of parliament are composed of members of the All People's Congress and the Sierra Leone People's Party which are the two largest political parties in Sierra Leone.
Ernest Bai Koroma is a Sierra Leonean politician who served as the fourth President of Sierra Leone from 17 September 2007 to 4 April 2018.
General elections were held in Sierra Leone on 26 and 27 February 1996 to elect the President and members of Parliament, with a second round of the presidential election on 15 March. They were the first elections since multi-party democracy had been reintroduced following a referendum on a new constitution in 1991, and the first multi-party elections held in the country since 1977.
The Constitution of Sierra Leone is the supreme law governing Sierra Leone and delineates its frame of government. It entered into force on October 1, 1991, following a popular referendum and approval by President Joseph Momoh. It superseded the 1978 Constitution.
General elections were held in Sierra Leone on 7 March 2018 to elect the President, Parliament and local councils. Incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma did not run for another term, as he was constitutionally ineligible, having served the maximum ten years in office.
General elections were held in Sierra Leone on 24 June 2023 to elect the president and members of Parliament. Incumbent president Julius Maada Bio was re-elected with 56% of the vote and the Sierra Leone People's Party won 81 seats in Parliament compared to the main opposition party, the All People's Congress, which won 54 seats. The result was contested by the All People's Congress, which demanded a rerun, citing "glaring irregularities". European election observers stated that there were "statistical inconsistencies" in the presidential results published, with the European Union Election Observation Mission saying that the electoral commission should "publish disaggregated results data per polling station to allow for public scrutiny of the results." Unless that happened, it said that transparency was compromised. The Carter Center echoed these sentiments, as did the United States, Britain, Ireland, Germany, France and the European Union.
