S.Leone polls mark break with "blood diamond" past
09 Aug 2007 11:03:00 GMT Source: Reuters
By Daniel Flynn
FREETOWN, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Sierra Leone holds presidential and parliamentary polls on Saturday, the first since U.N. peacekeepers left two years ago and a watershed in its recovery from an 11-year civil war fuelled by "blood diamonds".
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, a war-time leader re-elected on a wave of euphoria after a 2002 peace deal, is stepping down under the constitution amid dismay at his Sierra Leone People's Party's (SLPP) failure to provide water, power or decent roads in one of the world's poorest countries.
The war spawned images of drug-crazed child soldiers who hacked off people's limbs, but young Sierra Leoneans now have a chance to decide their nation's fate at the ballot box.
Well over half the 2.6 million voters are under 35.
"There is a lot at stake. This is about the future of this country after so many years of deep crisis, so many years of an extremely savage civil war," said Victor Angelo, head of the U.N. mission to the West African country.
"It is very important these election go well," he said.
Ernest Bai Koroma's opposition All People's Congress (APC) is mounting a strong challenge -- unusual in a region where ruling parties often coast to victory.
Ballots have been transported by army trucks, canoes and even porters to the furthest reaches of the savannahs and jungles of the interior, observers say.
Foreign donors have footed two-thirds of the $28 million bill, but many remain concerned the torrential downpours of the rainy season could disrupt voting in rural areas.
In the coastal capital Freetown, where British colonial-era wooden houses stand amid rubbish-strewn slums, exuberant rallies have filled the city with colour as crowds donned red T-shirts for the APC, green for the SLPP and orange for the breakaway PMDC, which threatens to drain the ruling party's support.
ANGRY YOUNG MEN
Young people, many of whom drifted into Freetown after the war, are angry at 60 percent unemployment and want change.
"We tried one party now we want to try the other," said Abdul Karim Ba, 30, a former fighter who now drives a taxi. "But this time we will only fight with ballots, not gun barrels."
Presidential candidates need more than 55 percent of the ballot to win in the first round without a run-off vote, which would probably be held in early September.
Kabbah's anointed SLPP successor, Vice-President Solomon Berewa, has promised to crack down on widespread graft and dismiss any official who fails to deliver on government targets.
Anger at corruption was at the root of the Revolutionary United Front rebellion, funded by illegal "blood diamond" sales but observers play down the likelihood of violence at the polls.
In Freetown, police pace the streets with megaphones and handwritten signs discouraging violence. Political leaders and musicians have also spoken out against any clashes.
"Any problems will come in the days after the elections as results trickle in," said a foreign observer, adding the APC is expected to take an early lead in Freetown but lose ground in rural areas, which account for most of the 5 million population.
But officials complain some Paramount Chiefs, the powerful customary rulers of Sierra Leone's interior and mostly regarded as pro-SLPP, are trying to influence how their subjects vote.
"Seventy-five percent of Paramount Chiefs allow their subjects to express their democratic rights; 25 percent are stubborn," said Christiana Thorpe, Chief Electoral Commissioner. (For country FACTBOX click on headline at [ID:nL09532972]) (Additional reporting by Katrina Manson)
