(Repeats story first published Nov. 15, text unchanged)
* Poll to gauge progress in war-scarred West African state
* Iron ore mining triggers revenue boom, optimism
* Election preparations peaceful so far
By Simon Akam
TILORMA, Sierra Leone, Nov 15 (Reuters) – When the European
Union’s chief election observer Richard Howitt asked people in
this remote village last month if they had concerns about Sierra
Leone’s looming presidential poll, he got a sobering response:
what is voting?
The question from one of the villagers in the gold and
diamond mining district of Kenema underscored the challenges
facing this West African country ahead of Saturday’s elections,
which will become the latest test of democracy in a region
notorious for flawed polls, civil wars, and coups.
Incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma, a former insurance
executive who came to power in 2007 in elections generally
considered free and fair, will face off against former junta
leader Julius Maada Bio.
At stake is a chance to oversee hundreds of millions of
dollars of recent investment in the country’s rich, but mostly
untapped, mineral resources.
If managed well, cash generated by Sierra Leone’s burgeoning
mining sector could transform a country that still bears the
scars of a 1991-2002 civil war into one of the world’s fastest
growing economies, and help lift many of its 5.5 million
citizens out of crippling poverty.
But fears of corruption, or a return to instability, remain
and presidential hopefuls are seeking to convince voters they
are best placed to root out graft, bridge ethnic divisions and
ensure the country gets its fair share from mining deals.
“We are expecting development for the country, like good
roads, jobs, light,” Henry Tommy, a 35-year-old self-employed
stone mason in Freetown said. “Now this country is a peaceful
country, we don’t want no fighting no more.”
Francis Kumah, the IMF’s resident representative, said the
start up of iron ore shipments by British firms African Minerals
and London Mining could fuel 20 percent growth in Sierra Leone
this year, and yield royalty revenues of between $125 and $250
million per year by the end of the next administration.
In a country whose entire national budget currently hovers
around $500 million, that is a lot to play for.
Sierra Leone also holds rich deposits of diamonds – which
helped fuel the civil war – gold, and other minerals. Its
election follows polls in regional neighbour Ivory Coast, which
sparked a civil war, and Guinea Bissau, which triggered a coup.
ETHNIC LINES
Koroma, viewed as the favourite in the election, has scored
points for infrastructure projects during his first term, with
new roads appearing in Freetown and beyond, and the completion
of the first stage of a long-delayed hydropower dam.
International companies have also arrived with investments
in agriculture – including a $1.2 billion rice and rubber
project inked earlier this year. The World Bank
said foreign direct investment in the first eight years since
the end of the civil war topped a half billion dollars.
“The fact that the direct foreign investment has
substantially increased is a reflection of the confidence people
are having in the country,” Koroma told reporters in Freetown
earlier this week.
However, Koroma’s government has also taken flak for alleged
softness on corruption and for signing opaque deals.
The country’s Anti-Corruption Agency has not sent a single
person to jail during Koroma’s term, his vice president and
running mate was investigated and later cleared of graft in
timber deals, and neither African Minerals nor London Mining’s
arrangements conform to Sierra Leone’s mining code.
Koroma’s challenger Bio, a member of the military government
that held power in Sierra Leone for four wartime years and who
served briefly as head of state in 1996, has attacked Koroma’s
record and promised to review all existing deals and the mining
code if elected.
“President Koroma, when he won the election, was not as
popular as I am today,” Bio told Reuters after a rally in
Moyamba in the southern province of Sierra Leone. “My name is a
household name in the country.”
Political allegiance in Sierra Leone, however, is largely
drawn on ethnic lines. Koroma’s All People’s Congress Party
draws its support from the Temne and Limba tribes of the north,
while Bio’s SLPP is rooted in the Mende of the south and east.
The strength of ethnic ties means it will be hard for either
candidate to take the 55 percent required to win outright in the
first round, meaning a run-off election is likely. But the
powers of incumbency make Koroma the favourite.
Preparations for the poll have been largely peaceful,
although the U.S.-based Carter Center election observer mission
said on Nov. 1 it was concerned by lacklustre voter education
efforts at ward level and “troubling cases of intimidation of
women candidates during the parties’ primary and nomination
periods.”
Koroma’s government has said it will deploy 1,500 soldiers
to help police keep order on election day in case of any unrest.
(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Keiron Henderson and Jon
Boyle)
