Sierra Leone: Main opposition presidential candidate claims assassination bid as vote tally underway

Senior officials from Sierra Leone’s main opposition party on Sunday (25 June) accused the country’s military of an assassination attempt on opposition presidential candidate Samura Kamara, which came a day after presidential, parliamentary and local elections took place following a tense campaign marred by violence.
It is a vote, in which President Julius Maada Bio is seeking a second five-year term to pursue an ambitious if unfulfilled education initiative, while the country is facing a crippling economic crisis, with the inflation having erased its highest level in two decades. Kamara, of the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) and the main contender challenging incumbent Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), accused the country’s military of shooting live ammunition and tear gas into their headquarters in Freetown, raising tensions in the small West African nation a day after the crucial vote. Concern over violence has been on the rise, with at least one person reported dead and reports of disruptions and irregularities at the polls.
Meanwhile, vote tallying was underway in Sierra Leone, the electoral commission said, as the opposition claimed a lack of transparency following fiercely fought general elections a day earlier. Kamara alleged in a statement that the electoral commission was making it “impossible for us and other political parties to compare, reconcile and verify” tallying. His party has for weeks accused the electoral commission of bias in favor of the governing party, raising speculation that it is laying the groundwork for a court challenge of the results -– a tactic both parties have used in the past. The results of the vote tally should be released sometime on Monday (26 June).