Politics of Sierra Leone

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Sierra Leone is a country located in West Africa, known officially as the Republic of Sierra Leone.

Contents

Government of Sierra Leone

The government of Sierra Leone is the governing authority of the Republic of Sierra Leone, as established by the Sierra Leone Constitution. The Sierra Leone government is divided into three branches: the executive, legislative and the judicial. The seat of government of Sierra Leone is in the capital Freetown.

The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Sierra Leone a " hybrid regime " in 2022. [1]

Administrative divisions

Sierra Leone is divided into provinces, districts, and chiefdoms. Sierra Leone has 3 rural provinces, plus a capital city administrative province. There are then 14 districts - 12 rural, 2 for the capital Freetown.

Sierra Leone is further divided into 149 chiefdoms. [2] The chiefdoms are hereditary, tribal units of local governance. [2] The World Bank sponsored the creation of elected local councils in 2004. [2]

Political parties and elections

President

Incumbent president Julius Maada Bio was re-elected with 56% of the vote, a result which was contested by the main opposition party, the All People's Congress, which demanded a rerun, citing "glaring irregularities". [3]

CandidateRunning matePartyVotes%
Julius Maada Bio Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh Sierra Leone People's Party 1,566,93256.17
Samura Kamara Chernor Maju Bah All People's Congress 1,148,26241.16
Mohamed BahMariatu Saudatu Turay National Democratic Alliance 21,6200.77
Charles Margai Tony Hindolo Songa People's Movement for Democratic Change 16,0120.57
Nabieu KamaraSaidu Mannah Peace and Liberation Party 7,7170.28
Abdulahi SaccohAlice Pyne Revolutionary United Front 6,7960.24
Prince CokerIbrahim Jalloh People's Democratic Party 5,9810.21
Iye KakayAmbrose KobiAlliance Democratic Party4,3360.16
Saa KabutaGabriel Samuka United National People's Party 4,0590.15
Beresford WilliamsKadija BanguraRepublic National Independent Party2,6920.10
Mohamed JonjoKaday JohnsonCitizen's Democratic Party2,3670.08
Mohamed Sowa-TurayOlivette WalkerUnited Democratic Movement1,6650.06
Jonathan SandyKomba MbawaNational Unity and Reconciliation Party1,3690.05
Total2,789,808100.00
Valid votes2,789,80899.61
Invalid/blank votes10,8830.39
Total votes2,800,691100.00
Registered voters/turnout3,374,25883.00
Source: Candidates ECSL

Parliament

The Sierra Leone People's Party won 81 seats in Parliament while the All People's Congress won 54 seats. The Sierra Leone People's Party did much better in the Kono District than it did in the previous election, winning seven of ten seats in this election after winning none in the district in the last election. It also made gains in northern and western Sierra Leone. [4]

Sierra Leone Parliament 2023.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Sierra Leone People's Party 1,578,25956.6881+32
All People's Congress 1,113,88240.0054–14
National Grand Coalition 18,1690.650–4
People's Movement for Democratic Change 17,3900.6200
National Democratic Alliance 3,8190.1400
Revolutionary United Front 1,5020.0500
Peace and Liberation Party 1,1310.0400
National Unity and Reconciliation Party1,0000.0400
Republic National Independent Party5600.0200
People's Democratic Party 5160.0200
Independents48,4641.740−3
Paramount chiefs140
Total2,784,692100.00149+3
Valid votes2,784,69299.60
Invalid/blank votes11,1890.40
Total votes2,795,881100.00
Registered voters/turnout3,374,25882.86
Source: Sierra Loaded, Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sierra Leone</span> Country on the southwest coast of West Africa

Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It shares its southeastern border with Liberia, and the northern half of the nation is surrounded by Guinea. Covering a total area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi), Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with diverse environments ranging from savanna to rainforests. The country has a population of 7,092,113 as of the 2015 census. Freetown is the capital and largest city. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government of Sierra Leone</span>

The government of Sierra Leone is the governing authority of the Republic of Sierra Leone, as established by the Sierra Leone Constitution. The Sierra Leone government is divided into three branches: the executive, legislative and the judiciary. The seat of government of Sierra Leone is in the capital Freetown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sierra Leone People's Party</span> Political party in Sierra Leone

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Districts of Sierra Leone</span>

The provinces of Sierra Leone are divided into 16 districts, as of July 2017. Previously, the country was divided into 14 districts. The Western Area is divided into two districts. Sierra Leone's capital Freetown is located in the Western Area of the country and its makes up the Western Area Urban District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elections in Sierra Leone</span> Political elections for public offices in Sierra Leone

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julius Maada Bio</span> President of Sierra Leone since 2018

Julius Maada Wonie Bio is a Sierra Leonean politician, and the current 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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonthe District</span> Place in Southern Province, Sierra Leone

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Margai</span> Sierra Leonean politician and constitutional lawyer

Charles Francis Kondo Margai is a Sierra Leonean politician and constitutional lawyer who served as Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Sierra Leone in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Bai Koroma</span> 4th President of 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Area Urban District</span> Place in Western Area, Sierra Leone

The Western Area Urban District is one of the 16 districts of Sierra Leone. It is by far the most populous district in the country with a population of 1,050,301 and is located in the Western Area of the country. The Western Area Urban District exclusively comprises the entire city of Freetown, the national capital, and its divided into the East End of Freetown, Central Freetown and the West End of Freetown; which are in turns divided into wards and constituencies within the City of Freetown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2007 Sierra Leonean general election</span>

General elections were held in Sierra Leone on 11 August 2007. Seven candidates competed in the first round of the presidential election; no candidate received the necessary 55% of the vote to win in the first round, and a second round was held between the top two candidates, Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People's Congress (APC) and Solomon Berewa of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), on 8 September. According to official results, Koroma won the election with 54.6% of the vote.

Dr. Christiana Ayoka Mary Thorpe is a former two-term Chief Electoral Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission, an independent agency created by the Sierra Leone government to organise and supervise national, regional and local elections. She is the first woman Chief Electoral Commissioner in the country's history. She was also a Deputy Minister of Education in the 1990s. In March 2016, she was appointed a Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Technology, though one source states that Parliamentary approval was still pending.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samura Kamara</span> Sierra Leonean politician and economist

Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara is a Sierra Leonean politician and economist. He was the All Peoples Congress (APC) Party's candidate for President of Sierra Leone in the 2018 election. He was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Sierra Leone from 2012 to 2017, Minister of Finance and Economic Development from 2009 to 2013, Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone from 2007 to 2009, Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance during President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subdivisions of Sierra Leone</span>

The subdivisions of Sierra Leone are as follows:

Yenga is a village in Kissi Teng Chiefdom, Kailahun District in the Eastern province of Sierra Leone. The village is at the international border between Sierra Leone and Guinea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Bockarie Foh</span> Sierra Leonean politician

Victor Bockarie Foh, CRSL is a Sierra Leonean politician who served as Vice President of Sierra Leone from 19 March 2015 to 4 April 2018. Foh replaced Samuel Sam-Sumana as vice president, after Sam-Sumana was sacked by President Ernest Bai Koroma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2023 Sierra Leonean general election</span>

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.

In August 2022, violent protests and riots broke out in Sierra Leone. The protests were concentrated in the capital, Freetown, and in the north, including Makeni and Kamakwie. The protests were triggered by the nation's cost of living crisis. A nationwide curfew was implemented. At least twenty-seven civilians and six police officers died in the protests.

Events in the year 2023 in Sierra Leone.

References

  1. "Democracy Index 2022: Frontline democracy and the battle for Ukraine" (PDF). Economist Intelligence Unit . 2023. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Tristan Reed and James A. Robinson, The Chiefdoms of Sierra Leone, Scholar, Harvard University, 15 July 2013, Document available online, accessed 30 April 2014
  3. Fofana, Umaru (1 July 2023). "Sierra Leone's main opposition party demands rerun of general election". Reuters. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  4. Fofana, Umaru (1 July 2023). "Sierra Leone ruling party wins 60% of parliamentary seats in contested vote". Reuters.

Elections