Sierra Leone

Krijn Peters

With President Koroma halfway through his second and final five-year term, the country slowly started to prepare for the next presidential elections. A population census, critical for voter registration, published its findings in April and provoked protests by the main opposition party. The census itself and also the elections had been postponed several times due to the Ebola Virus Disease crisis of 2014–15. declared itself Ebola free – for the second time – in March. The health cri- sis resulted in about 4,000 Sierra Leonean deaths and had a major impact on the economy. This, combined with a fall in world prices for iron ore, led to a major contraction of the economy. Nevertheless, growth rates were positive for the first time since 2014.

Domestic Politics

On 13 March, halfway through his second term, President Ernest Bai Koroma of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) party announced a major cabinet reshuffle that brought in 13 new ministers and deputy ministers. Sylvia Okayinka Blyden became

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789004355910_019 164 peters the new minster for social welfare, gender and children affairs, replacing Alhaji Moijueh Kai-Kai, who had recently been sacked along with his male deputy minis- ter. The new minister of works, housing and infrastructure, responsible for one of the largest budgets, was Ibrahim Kemoh Sesay. Sesay had been minister of transport and aviation in 2008 when he was sacked following an investigation into the arrival of a plane with 700 kg of cocaine on board, for which his brother was arrested. Mohamed Bangura, the former leader of the United Democratic Party, became the new minister of information. He replaced , who kept a government position as special presidential advisor, a strategy Koroma had often followed in the past to deal with dismissed ministers. Alfred Paolo Conteh was appointed as the new minister of internal affairs. Conteh, a retired army major, had previously been the coordinator of the National Ebola Response Centre, which had been criti- cised by Auditor General Lara Taylor-Pearce for the way it handled significant sums of aid money. Other appointments included Momodu Kargbo as the new minster for finance and economic development, Nanette Thomas as minister of political and public affairs and Ahmed Khanou as the new sports minister, replacing the disgraced , who had told the Sierra Leone Football Association to pay nearly SLL (leone) 125 m to be allowed to use the National Stadium for the national team’s African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2017 qualifiers and a friendly match against Malawi. Maya Kaikai became the new minister for local government and rural development and Sidi Yahya Tunis, the former communications director at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, was appointed as minister of . Tunis had been responsible for communicating health information to Sierra Leoneans during the Ebola crisis, and was rewarded with a ministerial post for his handling of the situation. Bai Mamoud Bangura, a fierce Koroma loyalist and presidential youth aide, became minister of youth affairs. Elizabeth Mans became the new minister for fisheries and marine resources. The changes resulted in Koroma’s cabinet having four female ministers. Brigadier General John Milton became the chief of defence staff, with Captain Abdul Rahman Kamar (rtd) named as deputy defence minis- ter. Dr , the sitting minister of finance and economic development praised for his many policy reforms during his tenure, became the governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone. He was seen as a possible future presidential candidate. Provisional results of the population census, conducted in December 2015, were released in April, a prerequisite for the 2018 presidential elections, and showed that the population had increased by more than 40% between 2004 and 2015, from 5.0 m to 7.1 m. The $ 10.5 m survey had become political dynamite and it did not take long for the opposition party, the Sierra Leone People’s Party, to point out that the population increase had taken place in areas that had traditionally voted for the incumbent party. It further accused APC loyalists of taking key positions in administering the census, which had been postponed twice because of the Ebola