Sierra Leone’s leader, Julius Maada Bio, will seek a second five-year term in elections on Saturday as an economic crisis envelops the West African nation.
(Bloomberg) — Sierra Leone’s leader, Julius Maada Bio, will seek a second five-year term in elections on Saturday as an economic crisis envelops the West African nation.
While 13 candidates are vying for the presidency, only Bio, 59, and Samura Kamara, a 72-year-old technocrat who previously served as finance and foreign minister, have a realistic chance of winning. The incumbent narrowly beat Kamara in a presidential runoff in 2018.
A contender needs to secure 55% support to win in the first round. Despite the nation’s economic woes, a June 14 poll by the Freetown-based Institute for Governance Reform, a partner of the pan-African survey company Afrobarometer, showed Bio garnering 56% backing and Kamara 43%.
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Sierra Leone has long been hamstrung by high levels of debt that have limited the government’s ability to bolster the economy and increase access to basic services, a problem exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a global tightening in interest rates have since pushed up living costs and eroded the value of the leone — it has fallen 50% against the dollar since the start of last year, the most among 22 African currencies monitored by Bloomberg.
Inflation reached 43% in April, driven by the leone’s decline and rising fuel and food costs. Almost 60% of the population of more than 8 million live in poverty, and the youth unemployment rate is among the highest in West Africa.
There have been several anti-government demonstrations over the past 18 months, with protesters calling for Bio to step down. A demonstration in August last year over the high cost of living led to at least 26 deaths, according to Amnesty International.
Kamara is hoping to capitalize on public anger over economic hardship and has criticized Bio for failing to attract foreign investment and reduce the country’s reliance on aid.
“The economy isn’t growing, businesses are closing down so our revenue uptake is shrinking,” he said in an interview in the capital, Freetown. The government has also “resorted to borrowing from the central bank and that’s dangerous,” he said.
The International Monetary Fund estimates the economy will expand 2.7% this year, and 4.7% in 2024.
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The president concedes that not enough has been done to reduce the nation’s reliance on food imports.
“We have a double whip here hitting us really hard,” Bio, whose campaign pledges include boosting agricultural output, reviving the mining industry and creating 500,000 jobs, said in an interview. “The exchange rate has deteriorated in the past one year to the point that the prices, I must confess, are quite high.”
Bio, a retired military officer briefly, led a military junta during a 11-year civil war that ended in 2002. About 3.4 million people have registered to vote in the election, the fifth held in the country since the end of the conflict, which claimed 50,000 lives and devastated the economy.
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