Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:41:17.261Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rogue incumbents, donor assistance and Sierra Leone's second post-conflict elections of 2007

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Jimmy D. Kandeh
Jimmy D. Kandeh*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173, USA
*
Email: jkandeh@richmond.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The removal of the governing Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) from power through the ballot box in 2007 represents a watershed moment in the growth and maturation of Sierra Leone's teething electoral democracy. This is because the peaceful alternation of political parties in power tends to strengthen democracy and nurture public confidence in elections as mechanisms of political change. In contrast to what happened in 1967, when the SLPP derailed the country's first post-independence democratic experiment by orchestrating a military coup after losing power in parliamentary elections, the SLPP in 2007 found itself isolated both internally and externally, and could rely neither on the support of a restructured army and police nor on external patrons like the United Kingdom which, among other things, suspended budgetary support for the government pending the satisfactory conclusion of the elections. The emergence of the People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), whose membership consists largely of disaffected former SLPP members and supporters, and the electoral alliance forged between the PMDC and the All People's Congress (APC) in the presidential run-off, doomed any chance the SLPP may have had of holding on to power. The elections were referenda on the SLPP, which lost both the presidency and the legislature because its rogue leadership squandered the goodwill of the public, misappropriated donor funds with impunity, and failed to deliver basic social goods and services.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 603 - 635
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

All People's Congress (APC). 2007. Manifesto for Elections 2007. Freetown.Google Scholar
Bates, R. 1999. ‘The economic bases of democratisation’, in Joseph, State, Conflict and Democracy in Africa, 83–94.Google Scholar
Bratton, M. & Posner, D.. 1999. ‘A first look at second elections in Africa, with illustrations from Zambia’, in Joseph, State, Conflict and Democracy in Africa, 377–408.Google Scholar
Beoku-Betts Commission. 1967. Report of the Beoku-Betts Commission of Inquiry on the Special Coffee Deal of the Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Board. Freetown: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Caplan, R. 2007. ‘From collapsing states to neo-trusteeship: the limits to solving the problem of precarious statehood in the 21st century’, Third World Quarterly 28, 2: 231–44.Google Scholar
Cox, T. 1976. Civil–Military Relations in Sierra Leone. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Diamond, L. 1996. ‘Is the Third Wave over?’, Journal of Democracy 7, 3: 20–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, H. 1969. ‘Elections and coups in Sierra Leone, 1967’, Journal of Modern African Studies 7, 4: 611–36.Google Scholar
Fukuyama, F. 2004. State-building: governance and world order in the 21st century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gershman, C. & Allen, M.. 2006. ‘The assault on democracy assistance’, Journal of Democracy 17, 2: 36–51.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, A. 2001. ‘Donors, dictators and democrats in Africa’, Journal of Modern African Studies 39, 3: 411–36.Google Scholar
Hanlon, J. 2005. ‘Is the international community helping to recreate the conditions for war in Sierra Leone?’, Round Table 94, 381: 459–72.Google Scholar
Harris, D. 2006. ‘Liberia 2005: an unusual African post-conflict election’, Journal of Modern African Studies 44, 3: 375–95.Google Scholar
Hayward, F. & Kandeh, J.. 1987. ‘Perspectives on twenty-five years of elections in Sierra Leone’, in Hayward, F. ed., Elections in Independent Africa. Boulder, CO: Westview, 25–59.Google Scholar
Hudock, A. 1997. ‘Institutional interdependence: capacity-enhancing assistance for intermediary NGOs in Sierra Leone and The Gambia’, Journal of International Development 9, 4: 589–96.3.0.CO;2-9>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntington, S. 1991. The Third Wave: democratization in the late twentieth century. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Huntington, S. 1997. ‘After twenty years: the future of the third wave’, Journal of Democracy 8, 4: 3–12.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group (ICG). 2007. ‘Sierra Leone: the election opportunity’. <http://www.crisisgroup.org>, 12.7.2007.,+12.7.2007.>Google Scholar
Joseph, R. ed. 1999. State, Conflict and Democracy in Africa. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Kandeh, J. 1998. ‘Transition without rupture: Sierra Leone's transfer election of 1996’, African Studies Review 41, 2: 91–111.Google Scholar
Kandeh, J. 2003. ‘Sierra Leone's post-conflict elections of 2002’, Journal of Modern African Studies 41, 2: 189–216.Google Scholar
Mkandawire, T. 1999. ‘Crisis management and the making of “choiceless democracies”’, in Joseph, State, Conflict and Democracy in Africa, 119–36.Google Scholar
Moss, T. 2005. ‘Current issues in development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa’, The Economist Intelligence Unit, February 2005. <http://www.eiu.com>, 4–15.,+4–15.>Google Scholar
National Democratic Institute (NDI). 2007. Pre-election Delegation to Sierra Leone's 2007 Elections. <http://www.ndi.org>, 16.7.2007: 9., 16.7.2007: 9.' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=National+Democratic+Institute+(NDI).+2007.+Pre-election+Delegation+to+Sierra+Leone's+2007+Elections.+,+16.7.2007:+9.>Google Scholar
National Electoral Commission (NEC). <http://www.necsierraleone.org>>Google Scholar
Posner, D. & Young, D.. 2007. ‘The institutionalization of political power in Africa’, Journal of Democracy 18, 3: 126–40.Google Scholar
Przeworski, A. 1995. Sustainable Democracy. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, S. 1996. ‘The 1996 presidential and parliamentary elections in Sierra Leone’, Electoral Studies, 15, 4: 537–44.Google Scholar
Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). 2007. 2007–2012 Manifesto. Freetown: SLPP.Google Scholar
Solomon, C. 2007. Reconstruction Survey: Sierra Leone 2007. Freetown: National Accountability Group (NAG).Google Scholar
Suberu, R. 2007. ‘Nigeria's muddled elections,’ Journal of Democracy 18, 4: 95–110.Google Scholar
Taylor, I. 2007. ‘What fit for the liberal peace in Africa?’, Global Society 21, 4: 553–66.Google Scholar

Newspapers and bulletins (published in Freetown)

Awoko; Concord Times; Evening Scoop; New Citizen; Peep; Sierra Leone Gazette; Standard Times