The West African Election Observers Network (WAEON) and the West Africa Democracy Solidarity Network (WADEMOS) commend the people of Sierra Leone for holding peaceful elections on June 24, 2023.
WAEON and WADEMOS support the call made by NEW for the ECSL to release all polling station-level results in the spirit of transparency and allow for independent analysis and verification of the results.
WAEON and WADEMOS note that the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) declared the results for the presidential elections on June 27, 2023, based on 98.8% of all polling stations across the country. The ECSL declared the incumbent, Julius Maada Bio, president-elect, polling 56.16% of the valid votes cast with a voter turnout of 83% of all registered voters. The President has since then been sworn into office.
Prior to the declaration by the ECSL, the National Election Watch (NEW), which is a member of WAEON and WADEMOS, issued a statement on June 27, 2023, based on estimates from its Process Results and Verification for Transparency (PRVT). The statement, which matched the partial results earlier released by the ESCL, estimated a voter turnout of 77.3% with a margin of error of +/- 1.7%. NEW, in its statement, further indicated that “No candidate will reach the constitutional threshold of 55% of votes cast in the first round,” according to the PRVT results.
