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.
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.
posted by Nenya @ 9:39 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home