police disperse opponents pending results

2023-06-26 02:39:59

In Freetown, the police announced on Sunday that they had dispersed opponents with tear gas, the day following the presidential election. Samura Kamara, rival of outgoing President Julius Maada Bio in this election, said for his part that bullets had targeted his party’s headquarters in the capital.

Published on: 06/26/2023 – 04:39

The Sierra Leonean police announced, on Sunday evening June 25, that they had used tear gas canisters to disperse opponents in Freetown, the day following the presidential election, which took place overall in calm and whose vote count continues.

Incumbent President Julius Maada Bio’s main opponent in this election, opponent Samura Kamara, said on Twitter that bullets had targeted his party’s headquarters in the capital.

Sidie Yahya Tunis, a spokesman for the All People’s Congress (APC), Samura Kamara’s party, told AFP that a woman died in the incident. “She was downstairs in the medical unit. She’s a nurse. We have a little clinic in our headquarters where she worked,” he said on Sunday evening.

Read alsoSamura Kamara, the seasoned technocrat who dreamed of taking revenge

Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, also an APC official, posted photos on Twitter from inside the formation’s headquarters that show people protecting themselves by lying on the ground. “We are at APC headquarters under fire,” she wrote.

I am in the APC Party office and we are under fire. It is tear gas and what sounds like live rounds. There are regarding 20 of us on the ground in one office. The shots are still being fired. We need help please! pic.twitter.com/W2YzU5erOw

— Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE (@yakisawyerr) June 25, 2023

Police said members of the APC were demonstrating in Freetown “announcing to the public that they had won” the elections, in a statement sent Sunday evening to AFP. These demonstrators drew a “crowd” of supporters outside the APC headquarters who “began to cause disturbance to passers-by,” she said in the statement.

“When the situation became unbearable, the police threw tear gas canisters at them to disperse the crowd which disturbed people on the public road,” she added.

The count continues

About 3.4 million people were called upon to choose between thirteen presidential candidates, a 2018 revenge-like ballot between Julius Maada Bio, a 59-year-old retired soldier who is seeking a second term, and Samura Kamura, a technocrat 72 years old and leader of the APC.

Julius Maada Bio, candidate for the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), won in the second round with 51.8% of the vote.

According to the electoral commission, the vote count continues. Results are expected within 48 hours of the vote. No figure for participation was advanced Sunday followingnoon. During the last elections, it had turned between 76 and 87%.

To be elected in the first round, a candidate must receive 55% of the valid votes.

In addition to their president, Sierra Leoneans also voted on Saturday to elect their parliament and local councils, polls marked by delays in the start of voting.

Several offices also closed late on Saturday, some at 11:30 p.m. (local and GMT), election commission chairman Mohamed Konneh said at a press conference on Sunday.

Sunday evening, the European Union electoral observation mission said it was “concerned” by the “current count”, calling for “complete transparency”. Same story on the side of the Carter Foundation, worried regarding “reports indicating a lack of transparency” during the count.

Incidents reported on Saturday

For the head of the electoral commission, Saturday was “one of the best election days” in Sierra Leone’s recent past, “if not the best”.

See alsoSierra Leone: in Freetown, slums built on the ocean

The West African Network for Peacebuilding, another observer group, said on Saturday that the vote was “relatively peaceful”, echoing a similar finding from the electoral commission.

However, the commission said on Saturday that poll workers had been attacked by unknown persons in some areas. Julius Maada Bio’s party has accused “senior APC officials” of attacking its electoral representatives.

APC officials, in turn, claimed that violence took place in several polling centers on Saturday night in Freetown and that its members were attacked in rural areas.

A national security official, Abdulai Caulker, said he was unaware of such incidents.

With AFP

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