This Saturday, August 11, more than two million voters in Sierra Leone will go to the polls to cast their ballots in presidential and parliamentary elections.
These will be the country's second national elections since a brutal, 10-year-long war officially ended in 2002 and its first since United Nations peacekeepers handed over security to newly-trained national police and military forces.
In March 2002, voters resoundingly elected the current incumbent, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah. But two years later the opposition All People's Congress (APC), made significant gains in local government elections, including taking control of the capital, Freetown.
With President Kabbah now having completed his second and final term, the electorate will be faced with a choice of seven presidential candidates. However, only two have a realistic chance of winning the polls.
Vice President Solomon Berewa, Kabbah's anointed successor and flag-bearer for the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), is the frontrunner in the race. Berewa, also the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice who led negotiations with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) to end the war, has been the de facto president for most of President Kabbah's second term.
Berewa and his running mate, Foreign Minister Momodu Koroma, face a stiff challenge from Ernest Bai Koroma of the opposition APC.
Koroma, who is inexperienced and has never held elected office, finished a distant second to Kabbah in 2002. This time around he is benefiting hugely from the government's failure to deliver social services such as electricity and water supply, its inability to deal with corruption and its perceived abandonment of the late Chief Hinga Norman.
Although many Sierra Leoneans hailed Norman as a hero for uniting the Civil Defence Forces (CDF) during the war and restoring Kabbah's government, he was arrested while serving as a minister in Kabbah's government and indicted before the Special Court for Sierra Leone, an international war crimes tribunal, on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.
The SLPP's support may also be eroded by the split in its ranks in 2005 which resulted in the formation of the People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC). Led by Charles Margai, the son of the country's second prime minister, it does not stand any prospect of winning but since it draws most of its support from traditional SLPP strongholds in the south and east of the country, it may seriously dent Berewa's chances.
Sierra Leone has made significant strides since the end of the conflict: diamond exports have risen; the economy has grown by seven percent a year for the past two years; more schools and hospitals have been built and enrolment in primary schools has increased.
Yet the peace is still fragile. The election campaign has been plagued by allegations of assassination attempts and there has been election-related violence in the districts of Pujehun, Bo and Kailahun, and also in Freetown. Spearheading most of the violence are some of the 71,043 demoblised ex-combatants.
For national as well as regional security, it is crucial that Sierra Leone's elections are fair and transparent. If the results are rigged, the ensuing problems may well trigger another crisis in a volatile region.
Last week, the Liberian government of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf announced that it had unearthed a coup plot and arrested six people, including General Charles Julu, who headed the presidential guard during the tenure of Samuel Doe, and George Koukou, a former speaker of the Liberian National Assembly during the post-war transitional government. In Guinea-Conakry and Guinea Bissau, governments are teetering on the brink of collapse following widespread civil and social unrest. In Côte d'Ivoire, there are new tensions following an assassination attempt on the prime minister and former rebel leader, Guillame Soro.
In Sierra Leone, there are promising signs which augur well for this Saturday's elections, despite the fact that a few commentators are predicting a repeat of the crisis that engulfed the nation in 1967, when it became the first independent African nation in which an incumbent government suffered electoral defeat.
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Following the 2004 local government elections, the country's electoral commission was completely disbanded. Based on an assessment conducted by Justice Johan Krieger, who helped conduct South Africa's 1994 elections, a new independent National Electoral Commission (NEC), was established. It has so far gained a reputation for impartiality and independence, although its performance will be hampered by financial and logistical problems arising from the holding of the elections in the middle of the rainy season.
The elections provide Sierra Leone with a great opportunity to consolidate its peace and address the key issues of governance inhibiting its development. It is crucial that their legitimacy should not be tainted by the kinds of problems seen in Nigeria's elections earlier this year. The entire nation and region will be praying it passes off peacefully.
Abdul Tejan-Cole is an internationally-renowned human rights lawyer from Sierra Leone. He is currently the Deputy Director of the International Center for Transitional Justice's Cape Town office and was a former head of Sierra Leone's Campaign for Good Governance.
