The Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) announced on Tuesday afternoon that the country’s President Dr Julius Maada Bio won the June 24th, 2023 Presidential election leading to his re-election but the main opposition party the All-People’s Congress (APC) says it has “credible evidence” the results were manipulated to which they will not accept the result.
The Chief Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone and National Returning Officer Mohamed K. Konneh declared President Bio elect having pulled the highest number of valid votes cast, (1,566,932) representing 56.17%. Dr Samura Kamara, the candidate for the All-People’s Congress Party (APC), garnered 1,148,262) representing 41.16% of valid votes cast.
Opposition Leader Dr Samura Kamara claims earlier before the announcement of the result that the votes had been “manipulated,” the All-People’s Congress party (APC), stated that it has “credible evidence that undermines the integrity of the electoral process and the results.”
The APC claims in its press statement that “Substantial discrepancies have been discovered from results from ECSL tally canters when compared with the official tallied result,” the APC party said that “Considering the closeness of the polls, this error is very significant and goes to the heart of the credibility of the results.” Adding that the result was manipulated which they as a party will not accept.
The National Elections Watch a local election observers’ body has also questioned the credibility of the result and called for a re-run.
Carter Center an international elections observer mission in the country has also described the counting of the result as not being transparent.