The country has, however, recently witnessed acts of politically instigated violence, mostly pitting civilians against the police, and sometimes resulting in deaths and massive destruction of property.
In a past interview with ACI Africa, Archbishop Tamba Charles said that violence had also been witnessed between opposing parties in parliament. This, he warned, was setting a bad precedent for the people ahead of elections.
“As much as I can remember, Sierra Leone has had the rowdiest parliament in the last four years. We have seen MPs fighting and throwing things and insults at each other. There was another one this past Wednesday. The fight was over the Proportional Representation System of voting, which the Electoral Commission wants to use this time because the August 10 riots disrupted the constituency boundary delimitation process,” the Sierra Leonean Archbishop told ACI Africa during the 25 November 2022 interview.
He added, “If the ‘Honorable’ Members of Parliament can fight each other in Parliament, what will stop them from organizing violent attacks at election time?”
In an earlier interview with ACI Africa, Archbishop Tamba Charles observed that many Sierra Leoneans never received psychosocial support even as the country journeyed through a healing process in the years that followed the war.
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“The one area that was overlooked was the psychosocial support and now, we have young people, middle-aged men who appear to have moved on, are working in offices yet they remain wounded,” the 66-year-old Catholic Archbishop told ACI Africa during the 7 November 2022 interview.
He added, “We have people who are aggravated by the slightest thing. You ask someone to give you space to pass on the road and they go lashing out profanities at you. It is like they are always waiting for an opportunity to burst out.”
“No one paid attention to the trauma healing, which our people so desperately needed,” Archbishop Tamba Charles told ACI Africa.
The Sierra Leonean Archbishop has also expressed concern that a majority of parties registered for the country’s forthcoming elections have chosen to remain noncommittal to peaceful polls, and that many had refused to sign a document that would otherwise cement their commitment to a peaceful election next year.
And now, what the IRCSL fears the most is that the June 2023 election may be marred by violence, with politicians being the biggest orchestrators of the violence.
“Our fears are many: that the electioneering campaigns might be marred by violence; that the credibility of the elections might be undermined by the violence that might be orchestrated by some politicians; that the country might be further divided along tribal and ethnic bases, as some politicians are already doing,” Archbishop Tamba Charles said during the 25 November 2022 interview.
In the interview, Archbishop Tamba Charles appealed to the Electoral Commission Sierra Leone, the body that is in charge of overseeing the electoral process in the West African country, to do all that is “humanly possible” to ensure that the electoral process is free of corruption.
“Let the electoral process be credible so that the results may be accepted by all,” the IRCSL President said.
He went on to urge the Sierra Leoneans to only vote for leaders who have the development of the country at heart and to resist the temptation to plunge the country into violence.
“Let us vote for the candidates we believe will work in the interest of our country for its people; that is, for the development of our country and the advancement of its people. Let us also allow others to choose their candidates and to vote for them without fear of being victimized,” Archbishop Tamba Charles said.
He further said, “Let us also avoid the use of violence and hate speeches before, during, and after the elections. May we accept the results of the elections and allow the candidates that win to govern the country with our fullest cooperation.
“Sierra Leone is the only country that we can call our home. Therefore, after the elections, the winners and the losers embrace each other and work together for the development of Sierra Leone and its people,” the Catholic Church leader said during the 25 November 2022 interview with ACI Africa.
Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.
