1996 Sierra Leonean general election

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1996 Sierra Leonean general election
Flag of Sierra Leone.svg
  1985 26 and 27 February 1996 (first round)
15 March 1996 (second round)
2002  
Presidential election
  Ahmed Tejan Kabbah (cropped).jpg Noimage.png
Nominee Ahmed Tejan Kabbah John Karefa-Smart
Party SLPP UNPP
Popular vote608,419414,335
Percentage59.49%40.51%

President before election

Julius Maada Bio
Military head of state

Elected President

Ahmed Tejan Kabbah
SLPP

Parliamentary election

68 of 80 seats in Parliament
PartyLeaderVote %Seats+/–
SLPP Ahmed Tejan Kabbah 36.1727New
UNPP John Karefa-Smart 22.1417New
PDP Thaimu Bangura 15.3312New
APC Edward Turay 5.695−100
PDP John Karimu 5.264New
DCP Abu Aiah Koroma 4.783New
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

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. [1] 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.

Contents

The presidential elections were won by Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), who defeated John Karefa-Smart of the United National People's Party in the second round by 60% to 40%. In the parliamentary elections, the SLPP became the largest party for the first time in 29 years, winning 27 of the 68 elected seats, whilst the UNPP finished second with 17 seats.

The All People's Congress, which had governed from 1968 to 1992 (from 1978 to 1991 as the only legal party), ran in a contested election for the first time in two decades. It finished fourth in the parliamentary election, whilst its presidential candidate, Edward Turay, finished a distant fifth with only 5.1 percent of the vote.

The elections were characterized by violence. [2]

Electoral system

The elections were a transitional event as the country moved to implement the 1991 constitution and move from military rule to civilian rule. The president was elected using the two-round system. The parliamentary elections were held using proportional representation with a single nationwide constituency with a 5% electoral threshold. [3] Previously the country had used first-past-the-post voting for parliamentary elections. The use of proportional representation in 1996 and 2002 has been described as Sierra Leone's "brief experiment" with proportional representation. [4]

Results

President

As no candidate won more than 55% of the vote in the first round, a second round of voting was held.

CandidatePartyFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah Sierra Leone People's Party 266,89335.80608,41959.49
John Karefa-Smart United National People's Party 168,66622.62414,33540.51
Thaimu Bangura People's Democratic Party 119,78216.07
John Karimu National Unity Party 39,6175.31
Edward Turay All People's Congress 38,3165.14
Abu Aiah Koroma Democratic Centre Party 36,7794.93
Abass Bundu People's Progressive Party21,5572.89
Amadu Jalloh National Democratic Alliance 17,3352.33
Edward Kargbo People's National Convention15,7982.12
Desmond Luke National Unity Movement7,9181.06
Andrew Lungay Social Democratic Party5,2020.70
Andrew Turay National People's Party3,9250.53
Mohamed Sillah National Alliance Democratic Party 3,7230.50
Total745,511100.001,022,754100.00
Source: African Elections Database

Parliament

The SLPP won the most seats in the elections, but fell well short of a majority, with only 27 of the 68 elected seats.

PartyVotes%Seats
Sierra Leone People's Party 269,88836.1727
United National People's Party 165,21922.1417
People's Democratic Party 114,42915.3312
All People's Congress 42,4675.695
National Unity Party 39,2855.264
Democratic Centre Party 35,6324.783
People's Progressive Party21,3612.860
National Democratic Alliance 20,1252.700
People's National Convention19,0192.550
National Unity Movement8,8851.190
Social Democratic Party5,9000.790
National People's Party3,9920.530
Indirectly elected paramount chiefs12
Total746,202100.0080
Source: Elections Today

Aftermath

On 25 May 1997 Kabbah was deposed by a coup led by Johnny Paul Koroma. However, he was returned to power by Nigerian-led ECOWAS forces on 10 March 1998.

References

  1. "Election Watch". Journal of Democracy. 7 (3). 1996. ISSN   1086-3214.
  2. "Election Watch". Journal of Democracy. 7 (2). 1996. ISSN   1086-3214.
  3. "NPRC Decree No 16, 1995 - The Electoral Provisions Decree, 1995 Being A Decree to Make A Provision for The Election of Members of Parliament and for Other Matters Connected Therewith," Sierra Leone National Provisional Ruling Council, 18th of December, 1995
  4. The Compelling Case for Proportional Representation (PR) Electoral System in Sierra Leone Critique Echo, 2022