Election Watch

David E Kiwuwa Sierra Leone Telegraph: 8 December 2016 The year ends with a gust of transformational winds blowing over the Gambia and Angola, raising hopes that Africa’s democracy project is not as dead as it is feared to be. The shock electoral defeat  of the Gambia’s strongman President Yahya Jammeh by Adama Barrow, a little known [Read More]

Benjamin Eya Kaingbanja Sierra Leone Telegraph: 4 December 2016 History has been made in the Gambia as the opposition leader – Adama Barrow received a phone call from the incumbent President Yayah Jammeh (Photo), accepting defeat. Barrow’s electoral victory has brought an end to Jammeh’s 22-year old dictatorship. Many did [Read More]

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 2 December 2016 I was in The Gambia in March this year for a week, visiting my maternal ancestral homeland. The capital Banjul was bustling with human activity. But there was an eerie and uneasy calm, as political tension and media repression stifled free speech and civil [Read More]

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 30 November 2016 When the executives of the ruling APC party of Sierra Leone last week announced that they were pulling out of the country’s Constitutional review process, it caused consternation among opposition parties and civil society groups. The question many are left asking after their surprised [Read More]

Pamela Johnson Sierra Leone Telegraph: 12 June 2016 A secret plan by a small group of cross-party parliamentarians in Sierra Leone to amend the 1991 Constitution, so as to promote their own narrow and personal political interests has been exposed. Many people in the country that have heard about this [Read More]

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 10 February 2016 Four years ago, Sierra Leone’s ruling APC concocted a new elections strategy they say was their winning formula for the 2012 elections. It was called ‘four-for-four’. In Sierra Leone there are four levels of elections, hence the aptly named ‘four-for-four’ campaign slogan was adopted [Read More]

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 5 June 2015 After months of violence and growing political and social instability in Burundi, caused by the decision of the president to seek a third term re-election into office, which has seen the death of over one hundred civilians and the assassination of an opposition leader, [Read More]

International Crisis Group Sierra Leone Telegraph: 22 November 2014 In its latest report, Nigeria’s Dangerous 2015 Elections: Limiting the Violence, the International Crisis Group examines the volatile environment in which electoral preparations are taking place and outlines measures that need to be taken urgently to curb the looming violence. (Photo: [Read More]

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 22 November 2012:  When news broke in the early hours of yesterday Wednesday, that the Chairman of Sierra Leone’s Electoral Commission will be hosting a press briefing, there was high octane media excitement, as the nation held its breath with heightened expectations. Millions of voters glued to [Read More]