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1996 Sierra Leonean general election

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Field	Value
country	Sierra Leone
previous_election	1985 Sierra Leonean presidential election
previous_year	1985
next_election	2002 Sierra Leonean general election
next_year	2002
election_date	26 and 27 February 1996 (first round)
15 March 1996 (second round)
module	{{Infobox election
embed	yes
election_name	Presidential election
type	presidential
image1	Ahmed Tejan Kabbah (cropped).jpg
nominee1	Ahmed Tejan Kabbah
party1	Sierra Leone People's Party
popular_vote1	608,419
percentage1	59.49%
image2	Noimage.png
nominee2	John Karefa-Smart
party2	UNPP
popular_vote2	414,335
colour2	FFFF00
percentage2	40.51%
title	President
before_election	Julius Maada Bio
before_party	Military head of state
after_election	Ahmed Tejan Kabbah
after_party	Sierra Leone People's Party
module	{{Infobox legislative election
embed	yes
election_name	Parliamentary election
seats_for_election	68 of 80 seats in Parliament
party1	Sierra Leone People's Party	leader1 = Ahmed Tejan Kabbah	percentage1 = 36.17	seats1 = 27	last_election1 = new
party2	UNPP	leader2 = John Karefa-Smart	percentage2 = 22.14	seats2 = 17	last_election2 = new
party3	PDP	leader3 = Thaimu Bangura	percentage3 = 15.33	seats3 = 12	last_election3 = new
party4	All People's Congress	leader4 = Edward Turay	percentage4 = 5.69	seats4 = 5	last_election4 = 105
party5	PDP	leader5 = John Karimu	percentage5 = 5.26	seats5 = 4	last_election5 = new
party6	DCP	leader6 = Abu Aiah Koroma	percentage6 = 4.78	seats6 = 3	last_election6 = new

15 March 1996 (second round)

General elections were held in Sierra Leone on 26 and 27 February 1996 to elect the President and members of Parliament, with a second round of the presidential election on 15 March. They were the first elections since multi-party democracy had been reintroduced following a referendum on a new constitution in 1991, and the first multi-party elections held in the country since 1977.

The presidential elections were won by Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), who defeated John Karefa-Smart of the United National People's Party in the second round by 60% to 40%. In the parliamentary elections, the SLPP became the largest party for the first time in 29 years, winning 27 of the 68 elected seats, whilst the UNPP finished second with 17 seats.

The All People's Congress, which had governed from 1968 to 1992 (from 1978 to 1991 as the only legal party), ran in a contested election for the first time in two decades. It finished fourth in the parliamentary election, whilst its presidential candidate, Edward Turay, finished a distant fifth with only 5.1 percent of the vote.

The elections were characterized by violence.

Electoral system

The elections were a transitional event as the country moved to implement the 1991 constitution and move from military rule to civilian rule. The president was elected using the two-round system. The parliamentary elections were held using proportional representation with a single nationwide constituency with a 5% electoral threshold. Previously the country had used first-past-the-post voting for parliamentary elections. The use of proportional representation in 1996 and 2002 has been described as Sierra Leone's "brief experiment" with proportional representation.

Results

President

As no candidate won more than 55% of the vote in the first round, a second round of voting was held.

Parliament

The SLPP won the most seats in the elections, but fell well short of a majority, with only 27 of the 68 elected seats.

Aftermath

On 25 May 1997 Kabbah was deposed by a coup led by Johnny Paul Koroma. However, he was returned to power by Nigerian-led ECOWAS forces on 10 March 1998.

References

(1996). "Election Watch". Journal of Democracy.
(1996). "Election Watch". Journal of Democracy.
"NPRC Decree No 16, 1995 - The Electoral Provisions Decree, 1995 Being A Decree to Make A Provision for The Election of Members of Parliament and for Other Matters Connected Therewith," Sierra Leone National Provisional Ruling Council, 18th of December, 1995
[https://www.critiqueecho.com/the-compelling-case-for-proportional-representation-pr-electoral-system-in-sierra-leone/ The Compelling Case for Proportional Representation (PR) Electoral System in Sierra Leone] Critique Echo, 2022

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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