Sierra Leone's Rigged Elections: Where Do the British Stand?

In July and August 2023, the United States government announced visa restrictions on officials who undermined democracy in Sierra Leone and called for an investigation into the conduct of the elections and accompanying human rights violations.

The move followed the disputed June 2023 general elections, which international and domestic elections observer groups described as "undemocratic and non-transparent."

However, in October 2023, the United States Embassy in Sierra Leone issued several statements that endorsed a "Hotel Agreement" between the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) and All Peoples Congress (APC), allowing politicians of the two parties to enter into a power-sharing arrangement without first investigating the conduct of the June 2023 elections.

In this episode, we review the position of the British government, showing that process that led to the October 2023 "Hotel Agreement" started with the SLPP/APC meeting held at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London.

In early May 2023, Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland first met with leaders of the SLPP and APC in London to discuss the "Sierra Leone elections and the values of the Commonwealth." And on 25 May 2023, the Commonwealth Secretariat midwife the signing of a pre-election "Peace Pledge" in Freetown that committed all candidates and political parties to respect democratic election rules.

Nonetheless, Sierra Leone’s public elections laws and the Commonwealth’s pre-election "Peace Pledge" were both violated. In spite of these violations, in August 2023, the Commonwealth Secretariat offered to negotiate a political settlement to the electoral crisis without first investigating the disputed elections and its human rights violations.

Consequently, this Commonwealth proposed negotiation, eventually held in October 2023 at the Bintumani Hotel in Freetown, only included leaders of the SLPP and APC. Other political parties that signed the Commonwealth’s Pre-Election Peace Pledge, and participated in the elections, were all excluded from the post-elections negotiation that led to the SLPP/APC Hotel Agreement, which foreign diplomats wrongly called "an agreement for national unity."

Thus, in this episode, we use the Commonwealth’s inconsistent and questionable approach to the political crisis in Sierra Leone to further illustrate the quandary that foreign diplomats and embassies face today in that small West African country.

This episode is part of the VOICE FROM EXILE commentary series of the Africanist Press.