History Commons^™

When the National Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone announced that Ernest Bai Koroma and his party, the All People’s Congress, had been elected to replace the incumbent Sierra Leone People’s Party government, Sierra Leone joined a growing number of African nations to have experienced a peaceful turnover of power from one popularly elected government to another. Though the electoral tallies were not without their critics, the overwhelming sentiment both within Sierra Leone and without was that the 2007 elections marked a positive turning point in the country’s political history. Using newly released census data and election results, we analyze the …