28, June 2023
Sierra Leone: Calm despite contested election outcome 0
The streets of Sierra Leone’s capital were quiet on Wednesday, a day after President Julius Maada Bio was sworn in for a second term following an election his main rival slammed as “not credible.”
Many people in central Freetown said they were relieved at the peaceful atmosphere as they went about their business at the start of Muslim festival of Eid, a public holiday.
Some women were selling food at market and commercial drivers of motorcycles and tuk-tuks were out in rain-soaked streets scouting for customers.
“I’m happy, not even because of the result, but I’m happy with the way everything came and went, because our expectations were really high that it was going to be like a catastrophe”, said Amanda, 40, a hotel employee who did not want to give her last name.
“(…) We can have the votes but if we don’t have the peace it doesn’t make a difference.”
“Everyone is cool, everyone is doing well, everyone is happy. Everyone is going on with its normal business,” said Abu Kailesie, a 24-year-old student and Bio supporter. “We are OK.”
But Alpha Kaloko, a 20-year-old bike rider, said, “I’m not happy about these results, because I think this election is not right. It’s not fair… We need changes.”
Bio, 59, who leads the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), was sworn in at State House on Tuesday immediately after the Electoral Commission announced he had narrowly won outright victory in the first round of voting, with 56.17 percent of the ballot.
Presidential candidates need 55 percent of the vote in the first round to avoid a run-off.
Since the end of Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002 civil war, no incumbent has failed to secure a victory in the first round.
Sierra Leone has a two-term presidential limit.
Tense rematch
The vote on Saturday was a rematch of a 2018 race that saw Bio, a former coup leader who campaigned on progressive policies, edge out Samura Kamara of the All People’s Congress (APC).
But he took the helm just before the West African state was pummelled by the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by crippling levels of inflation.
EU observers denounced violence by security forces at the APC headquarters in Freetown on Sunday night, in what the police said was an effort to disperse opposition supporters, which left one woman dead.
Kamara, an ex-minister and economist, does not appear to have conceded defeat.
“I categorically reject the outcome so announced by the electoral commission,” the candidate — who won 41.16 percent of the vote, according to the Electoral Commission — said on Twitter on Tuesday evening.
He has not given a speech since the results were announced. But shortly before the announcement of results, he denounced a “total lack of transparency and accountability” by the election overseer.
National Election Watch, a coalition of civil society organisations, issued a statement late Tuesday pointing to alleged irregularities in the electoral commission’s data.
It said that, based on its own calculations, turnout was between 75.4 and 79 percent, not 83 percent as the electoral commission announced.
It also said that Bio should have received between 47.7 and 53.1 percent of the vote, while Kamara should have received between 43.8 and 49.2 percent.
Cameron Hume, a former US ambassador who headed an observation mission by the Carter Center, told AFP on Wednesday that there had been some flaws in the process.
“The voting seemed to take place in a credible manner,” Hume said.
“But when it came to the delivery of ballots and the opening of ballot boxes at tabulation centres, there were numerous incidents where we saw a break in the chain of credibility.”
Source: AFP
30, June 2023
Yaoundé: Minister accused of corruption wants Biya to stand for re-election 0
Health minister Manaouda Malachie currently under investigation by the Special Criminal Court over alleged involvement in a huge Covid-19 corruption scandal has organized a meeting calling on the 90-year-old President Paul Biya to stand for re-election, two years before the next polls are due.
The move interpreted by many political commentators as a cunning manoeuvre by the politician from the Far North has also generated a lot of under-the-table talk in the nation’s capital, Yaoundé.
Investigators have been sending out new summons as part of a probe into the alleged embezzlement of IMF funds given to Cameroon to help with its Covid-19 response. Health minister Manaouda Malachie is among those on the list.
As part of the inquiry into the management of Covid-19 funds, judges at the Special Criminal Court have also issued Minister Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh with a summons. However, his high-level contacts within the security apparatus are currently offering him protection.
By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Rita Akana in Yaoundé