- The Electoral Body is the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL)
- 21 years of uninterrupted electoral democracy
- Sierra Leone is a Constitutional Republic with a unicameral parliament and a directly elected president
- This election is multi-tier, with the Presidential, Parliamentary and local council elections holding concurrently.
- The president serves a maximum of two five-year Terms
- There are 13 candidates for this year’s presidential elections
- One female presidential candidate
- 19 local councils and 16 electoral districts
- 146 members of parliament including 1 traditional ruler from each district.
- 3630 polling centres nationwide
- 11,832 polling stations nationwide
- 3,374,258 registered voters
- Voting age is 18
- Elections are dominated by 2 political parties the Sierra Leone Peoples Party SLPP and the All Peoples Congress APC
- The presidential candidate of the SLPP is incumbent President Julius Maada Bio and opposition candidate Samura Kamara of the APC.
- Maada Bio is former military ruler. He was a key member of the junta that took over in 1992. He then led a palace coup in 1996, handing over power within 3 months to an elected civilian president, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah the same year.
- Samura kamara served as Sierra Leone Central Bank Governor, Minister of Finance and Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Maada Bio is 59 while Samura Kamara is 72.
- The winner of the Presidential election must secure 55% of votes cast. If no outright winner, the 2 top candidates will head to a run-off within two weeks after results is announced.
- The candidate with the highest votes is declared winner.
Source:
Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone
Centre for Democratic Development, West Africa
