Daily Times

Sierra Leoneans voted Saturday in a general election in which President Julius Maada Bio is seeking a second term amid a crippling economic crisis that sparked deadly riots last year. One of the world’s poorest countries, Sierra Leone was battered by a brutal 1991-2002 civil war and the Ebola epidemic a decade later. More economic misery followed due to the Covid pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which notably spiked food prices in the import-dependent West African nation.

Boubacar Conteh, 27, from Wellington in the east of Freetown, waited since four in the morning to cast his ballot. “I want my country to change – I need change,” he said. Twelve men and one woman are vying for the top job and incumbent Bio’s main challenger is Samura Kamara of the All People’s Congress (APC) party.

They could face off for the second time in a row. Bio, 59, of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), narrowly beat Kamara, who is aged 72, in a runoff in 2018. Rising food prices are a key issue for many voters in the nation of eight million people. Year-on-year inflation hit 43 percent in April. Both Bio and Kamara told AFP they would prioritise boosting agricultural production. Mohamed Waritay, a 27-year-old security guard, said he was voting for Bio, who had significantly raised spending on education.

“I never paid a single cent from 2019” on education, he said. Waritay said Bio “built a hospital in my village with 100 beds”, adding: “People were suffering, especially the pregnant women who had to take a motorbike to go to the nearest town”.