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Statistics Sierra Leone carried out a mid-term population and housing census in December 2021. The declared purpose of the census was to review the country’s development status since the previous census of 2015 and update the base maps and enumeration areas. Opposition parties challenged the procedures for conducting the census, argued that its real purpose was to redraw the constituency boundaries for the June 2023 general elections, and urged their supporters to boycott it.
In her letter to the Statistician General challenging the census results, the Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, also highlighted the number of assessable properties in the Council’s database, which in 2022 was 107,526. With a recorded average of 9.2 people per household, she concluded that 989,239 people could be living in formal, assessable properties in the city. Data for 56 slum communities in Freetown also show that there were 344,147 slum dwellers in 2022.
The voter registration data for the 2023 elections released in December 2022 raise serious questions about the accuracy of the midterm census data. The distribution of registered voters for the two regional voting blocs mirrors those of the 2018 and 2012 voter registers and gives the lie to the recorded parity of the 2021 census. The North and Western Area account for 59.19 percent of the registered voters for the 2023 elections, and the South and East 40.81 percent. Amazingly, this 59.19:40.
A similar problem is encountered when we compare the registered voters in Kenema and Freetown. Despite the higher number of people recorded for Kenema in the census data , a lot more people registered to vote in the 2023 elections in Freetown than in Kenema . Indeed, as in previous voter registers, there are more voters in Freetown than any other district. Only 41.16 percent of the 2021 census population of Kenema registered to vote.
In “The Humbling of the All People’s Congress: Understanding Sierra Leone’s March 2018 Presidential Run-off Election”, I characterised the APC’s failure to retain power in 2018 as a protest vote against the party. This can be traced to the party’s two region strategy ; and poor record in office, especially during its second term when the key economic indicators sharply deteriorated and its leader, Ernest Koroma, became an all-powerful and unaccountable president.
A popular refrain in Freetown on the high cost of living during Bio’s first two years in office was “” . On the plus side, the government has spent substantial sums of money on its flagship Free Quality School Education programme , which has raised enrollment levels tremendously across the country.
“Relying on the South and East would have given him only 34.85 percent of the votes; and including the Western Area would have raised his vote share to 46.32 percent. It is only when his votes in the North are added that he is able to get to the 50 percent+1 mark. The interesting point about Bio’s Northern votes is that reliance on only his votes in the districts with strong minority presence would have given him only 2.
Arbitrary arrests, refusal of permits for public demonstrations, detentions, unlawful killings, and use of excessive force against civilians and those considered as anti-government activists persist. Many of these infractions and abuses are documented in the US State Department’s 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and Amnesty International’s 2023 report on excessive use of force by Sierra Leone’s security forces in 2022.
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