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Rogue incumbents, donor assistance and Sierra Leone's second post-conflict elections of 2007

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Jimmy D. Kandeh
Jimmy D. Kandeh*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The removal of the governing Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) from power through the ballot box in 2007 represents a watershed moment in the growth and maturation of Sierra Leone's teething electoral democracy. This is because the peaceful alternation of political parties in power tends to strengthen democracy and nurture public confidence in elections as mechanisms of political change. In contrast to what happened in 1967, when the SLPP derailed the country's first post-independence democratic experiment by orchestrating a military coup after losing power in parliamentary elections, the SLPP in 2007 found itself isolated both internally and externally, and could rely neither on the support of a restructured army and police nor on external patrons like the United Kingdom which, among other things, suspended budgetary support for the government pending the satisfactory conclusion of the elections. The emergence of the People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), whose membership consists largely of disaffected former SLPP members and supporters, and the electoral alliance forged between the PMDC and the All People's Congress (APC) in the presidential run-off, doomed any chance the SLPP may have had of holding on to power. The elections were referenda on the SLPP, which lost both the presidency and the legislature because its rogue leadership squandered the goodwill of the public, misappropriated donor funds with impunity, and failed to deliver basic social goods and services.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 603 - 635
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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