Around 3.4 million Sierra Leoneans are expected to vote in a general election on Saturday in which incumbent President Julius Maada Bio is seeking a second and final term amid frustrations over economic hardship.
Voters will also elect members of parliament and local councillors across the West African state.
The poll is the fifth presidential election since the end of a 1991-2002 civil war in which more than 50,000 were killed, hundreds maimed and hundreds of thousands displaced.
Bio, 59, is seen as the front-runner in the presidential race with 13 candidates. His biggest challenger is Samura Kamara of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party, who narrowly lost to Bio in the last 2018 election.
Kandeh Yumkella, a former United Nations under-secretary-general who came third in 2018 and is not running, has thrown his weight behind the president.
While campaigning has been generally peaceful, some election-related violence toward the opposition has broken out around ruling party strongholds in the southeast.
“They keep attacking us… by destroying our campaign posters and attacking our supporters,” Kamara said, adding that his party office was set on fire in the southern city of Bo, while his convoy came under attack in another town.
The ruling party has meanwhile complained about attacks on their supporters in southern Pujehun District and in the opposition’s northern stronghold.
Some voters have also been alarmed by violent rhetoric from main parties during the campaign.
“All I want is peace. I am scared by the high level of hatred I see being exhibited on social media by political extremists on both sides,” said a student at the University of Sierra Leone, who requested to remain anonymous.
Kamara last week called for electoral commissioners to resign, saying his party did not believe in their ability to hold free and fair elections.
The APC has met with the election management body and threatened to call supporters to the streets on Wednesday if its demands were not met. The two sides have been locked in talks to prevent the situation from degenerating.
On the campaign trail, Kamara’s party has criticised Bio’s handling of the economy and soaring prices. The ruling party has blamed economic woes on external factors such as the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
If no candidate secures 55% of the valid votes cast to win on the first ballot, the top two candidates will head to a runoff two weeks after the announcement of the first-round result.
