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Politics

Sierra Leone Tactical: General elections to be 05 held nationwide on March 7, travel restrictions MAR to be instituted; maintain vigilance 20:32 UTC

Please be advised

General elections in are scheduled to be held throughout the country on March 7. Voters will elect the next President as well as parliament and local council members. The Inspector General of Police advised on February 26 that nationwide restrictions on vehicle traffic would be in effect on March 7 from 06:00 (local time) to 19:00. These will apply to and the district capitals nationwide. Specifically, only hired commercial buses and unmarked vehicles belonging to political parties, as well as vehicles belonging to election bodies, accredited international and local election observers, media outlets, civil society organizations, the Sierra Leone Bar Association, “essential service institutions”, and diplomatic missions, will be allowed to circulate. Travellers entering or leaving the country may be exempted from the travel restrictions provided that they produce valid boarding passes and passports. Additionally, the Inspector General of Police has advised individuals not to loiter within 300 meters of polling centers. Finally, movement between Sierra Leone’s 16 districts will be prohibited while the travel restrictions are in effect. In the presidential election, of the majority All People’s Congress (APC) will face off against opposition front-runners of the of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), the leading opposition party, and Kandeh Yumkella of the National Grand Coalition (NGC), an SLPP offshoot.

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1. The presidential campaign season in Sierra Leone has been marred in recent days by a nationwide wave of politically motivated violence. Most recently, on February 28, an APC supporter was stabbed to death during a party in Freetown that drew thousands of participants. The APC’s chairman, organizing secretary, and youth leader were also reportedly attacked on February 26 in Kenema, Eastern Province by suspected SLPP supporters, six days after SLPP candidate Julius Maada Bio was attacked by APC partisans in Kamalo, . And while APC and SLPP leaders met on February 28 in an effort to ease political tensions and vowed to conduct a peaceful election, the two parties have employed heated rhetoric against one another characterized by allegations of fraud and ballot-rigging, fueling the partisan animosity that they vowed to combat. 2. Accordingly, the March 7 elections will be highly charged, especially in Freetown, where the APC and SLPP have traded victories in recent elections and where over 20 percent of the country’s eligible voters reside. It is also in Freetown that the NGC, which split from the SLPP in 2017, is likely to make the greatest inroads, given that neither of the two historically dominant parties have been able to maintain a foothold in the capital. 3. FORECAST: It is therefore in Freetown that political tensions are most likely to devolve into violence, given the currently polarized political climate and the partisan divisions that exist among the city’s residents. While the police’s travel restrictions imposed on February 26 are likely to mitigate the threat of political violence in less contested party strongholds throughout the country, the risk of spontaneous partisan clashes between voters at polling centers throughout Freetown remains. In fact, it is likely due in large part to this risk that the police has prohibited loitering near voting facilities during the hours that the travel restrictions are in effect. Indeed, in recent elections, the top two parties have allegedly employed partisan protection units known as “task forces” to intimidate one another’s voters. 4. FORECAST: Furthermore, a heavy police presence is likely to be deployed throughout Freetown and especially in front of polling centers both in the capital and other locales in anticipation of political violence during and after voting hours on March 7. These police deployments are likely to exacerbate the traffic disruptions caused by the Election Day travel restrictions and also raise the possibility of forcible dispersals of unruly groups of voters.

Recommendations

Those operating or residing in Sierra Leone on March 7 are advised to maintain heightened vigilance throughout the day and avoid the vicinity of political gatherings given the potential for unrest associated with the upcoming elections.

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