The opposition win
The APC have won the elections in SL- there were huge cheers in town as the results were announced- I had it in stereo as I could hear the cheers on the radio, as well as ‘live’. The APC supporters have been celebrating since then in the streets, tho’ a seasonal downpour has ensured the celebrations aren’t as lively as could’ve been possible.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Koroma stated he would focus on bringing development to Sierra Leone, particularly focusing on agriculture and tourism. The first of these I believe is absolutely essential to the economy, since SL’s environment means it should be able to really produce all that is needed for its population. The problem is then getting it to the people who need it at a price they can afford- it’s all very well for the north of the country to have excess production in rice, but when it’s those in the south that don’t have food, the infrastructure in the country needs a lot of improvement before such imbalances can benefit the whole of the country. On the tourism front, SL has a lot of beautiful scenery to offer- great for hiking or relaxing on a pristine beach, but not much else. If the development of tourist facilities means a focus on infrastructure in general- so that the people of SL have good power supply (instead of about 5% of the time), roads which are in a decent state of repair (currently not even the capitals of each of the districts have paved roads linking them), water that is suitable for people to drink and an education policy that encourages people not to just throw their rubbish away anywhere, but to be aware of their surroundings and the importance of SL being seen as a clean and beautiful country rather than as an overflowing rubbish tip, then there is a chance for tourism to be highly beneficial to the country. Unfortunately it would be competing with other countries further up the development ladder that already have resorts and infrastructure in place to look after visitors and that have entertainment other than natural surroundings to offer tourists, but there is no reason why SL shouldn’t at some point in the future be able to entice the numbers of people who came here before the war to enjoy the atmosphere here.
Koroma is a Christian, but comes from the mainly Muslim north of the country. In SL, people don’t vote on religious lines and from a human development perspective, the ability of Muslims and Christians to live peacefully side by side, voting for each other in elections, is something that Sierra Leoneans really are able to teach the rest of the world. There is a fair amount of nominalism here and it seems as tho’ lots of people are ‘Sunday-Christians’ or ‘Friday-Muslims’, but religion seems to be a uniting rather than dividing factor here and it’s only if you express an agnostic/atheistic viewpoint that you are looked upon askance.
Will update with more info on how things are going here and what’s happening to life here as soon as I can.
Labels: agriculture, APC, elections, power, religion, roads, tourism
A few provisional results so far in the elections
In Freetown the elections went off fairly peacefully, I was involved in the election monitoring, which was pretty dull and very quiet, which is good and how it should be, but having to get to the polling station for a 5am start wasn't the nicest (stations didn't open till 7am, but apparently some people monitoring the first round of elections- who were given a 6am arrival time- didn't get to the stations till about 7am, but which time all the setting up needed to have been done) but all worked out fine in the end.
There were various accounts of ballot box stuffing and some places where officials from one party or the other weren't allowed in, but overall it seems to have been a very quiet day, with most of the polling stations having free, fair and democratic elections. Admittedly there were some rather clumsy attempts at ballot rigging, which have been struck off by NEC (National Electoral Commission); they've disqualified any stations where there are more votes than registered voters. Which would seem reasonable.
Official count so far is up to 37.7 percent yesterday, with some results reported from every district (12 districts plus the Western Area in total in SL). The APC are on 60 percent of the vote so far and the SLPP on 40, with the projected results narrowing this slightly to 58-42 final estimation. This trend is likely to continue in the coming days as more rural results are posted so the margin will likely tighten as it did in the first round, but it is hard at the moment to see the SLPP (current governing party) coming back to take the lead.
Notable results yesterday include nearly 40 percent of votes so far in Bonthe (in the south-west of the country, a traditional SLPP stronghold) going to APC, and 24 percent of Kailahun (south- east and also a traditional SLPP/ PMDC hotspot) votes despite allegations that the SLPP has rigged the voting. Koinadugu (APC traditional stronghold) is the only northern district where the SLPP have made significant inroads so far.
Anyway, I will write more when there are more results to be had, tho' it looks as though there could be a change in the governing party, which could well lead to several changes in policies over the next few months and years.
