Despite fears of pre-election violence and the possibility of vote rigging, Sierra Leone’s chief electoral commissioner says the country is ready for the August 11 presidential and parliamentary elections. This will be the country’s second election since the end of 10 years of civil war in 2002 and the first without the supervision of the international community.

Christiana Thorpe, the chief electoral commissioner for Sierra Leone told VOA the August 11 poll is a make or break election for Sierra Leone.

 “We are very much prepared. We are sending the polling stuff and receiving materials for the election. Voter registration was completed about four months ago, and we had about 91 percent turnout,” she said.

This will be Sierra Leone’s second election since the end of 10 years of civil war in 2002 and the first without the supervision of the international community. Thorpe said the August 11 polls are a test case for Sierra Leone
“I think it’s a break or make election because, as you say, it’s really our first post-war election. We really do not have all the facilities that were there at the last general election with the international community and U.N. troops there all over. Now we are dealing with the military and Sierra Leone police, and the Electoral Commission is really structured. So it is a test case for us, and I’m sure it’s going to go well,” she said.
Several reported instances of violence leading into the elections have sparked appeals from the United Nations and other organizations to political parties to reign in their supporters.

Thorpe said the Electoral Commission is working with political parties about how to minimize pre- or post-election violence.
“As of now, the campaigning is going on, and we are working on the issue of violence. Not just us, the police, the Political Parties Registration Commission, and we are meeting the party leaders and party supporters trying to discourage violence as much as possible,” Thorpe said.

She said whether there would be a runoff election or not would depend on the first round of balloting. But if there is a runoff election, she said it would take place two weeks after the first round, preferably Police, observers deploy in Sierra Leone ahead of Police and poll observers Friday began deploying across the west African nation of Sierra Leone after violence marred the start of campaigning for the country’s second post-war polls.

Police spokesman Ibrahim Samura said the first batch of paramilitary police had fanned out across the country’s southeast where inter-party clashes broke out last week as campaigning was launched.
”They will maintain security in conflict-oriented areas during the electioneering process,” he told AFP.
Analysts fear that reports of violence in the first week of Sierra Leone’s electoral campaign could undermine the nation’s chances of definitively turning its back on a brutal 10-year conflict which was officially declared ended in 2001.

The diamond-rich west African country, ravaged by a decade of one of the most brutal civil wars in modern history, is holding presidential and legislative elections on August 11.
The first elections after the end of the war in 2001 went off peacefully and were seen as a litmus test for a country, where some 120,000 people died and tens of thousands were mutilated or had their limbs amputated in the conflict.

A first group of 28 of the total 77 European Union observers Friday started deploying across interior Sierra Leone, the EU mission said.

”The observers will remain in their fields of operations until after the elections and observe the post-election process,” a statement said. 

Observers from the United States and West African regional blocs will also monitor the polls.