Swings and roundabouts: the vagaries of democratic consolidation and ‘electoral rituals’ in Sierra Leone

Abstract

The history of the electoral process in Sierra Leone is at the same time tortuous and substantial. From relatively open competitive multi-party politics in the 1960s, which led to the first turnover of power at the ballot box, through the de facto and de jure one-party era, which nonetheless had elements of electoral competition, and finally to contemporary post-conflict times, which has seen three elections and a second electoral turnover in 2007, one can discern evolving patterns. Evidence from the latest local and national elections in 2012 suggests that there is some democratic consolidation, at least in an electoral sense. However, one might also see simultaneous steps forward and backward – What you gain on the swings, you may lose on the roundabouts. This is particularly so in terms of institutional capacities, fraud and violence, and one would need to enquire of the precise ingredients – in terms of political culture or in other words the attitudes and motivations of electors and the elected – of this evolving Sierra Leonean, rather than specifically liberal type, of democracy. Equally, the development of ‘electoral rituals’, whether peculiar to Sierra Leone or not and whether deemed consolidatory or not, has something to say as part of an investigation into the electoral element of democratic consolidation.¹ The literature on elections in Africa most often depicts a number of broad features, such as patronage, ethno-regionalism, fraud and violence, and it is the intention of this article to locate contemporary Sierra Leone, as precisely as possible, within the various strands of this discourse.

Keywords:

• Sierra Leone
• elections
• democratic consolidation

Notes

1. Thanks to the late Donal Cruise O'Brien for the conception of ‘electoral rituals’ (personal communication, October 2005). He was referring to some electoral processes that have become habituated and hence would be difficult to remove, thereby creating some sort of democratic solidification.

2. Sam Hinga Norman was the head of the south-eastern based Karmajor militia, which fought against the RUF and Sierra Leone Army (SLA) during the country's civil war.

3. Tom Nyuma was facing corruption charges which some believe may have influenced his decision to defect to the APC for protection from prosecution.