They’ll certainly have a new president replacing Ernest Bai Koroma who’s constitutional term has expired.

And they’ll probably have a more diversified parliament.

There are sixteen presidential candidates contest this election, with the ruling All People’s Congress that run Sierra Leone since independence from Britain in 1961 under threat.

Violence during political rallies has forced former Ghanaian President John Mahama, who is heading the Commonwealth observer team, to play a mediation role.

Poverty, corruption and poor health services are the main issues in this election.

Sierra Leone, which has 150 doctors tending to the population of seven-and-a-half million is still recovering from the devastating Ebola outbreak and a killer mudslide.

The post Sierra Leone goes to the polls appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The winner of that poll Adama Barrow is calling on the international community to keep the pressure on Jammeh.

Troops loyal to defeated president Yayha Jammeh have seized the country’s electoral commission offices in the capital Banjul.

Jammeh has petitioned Gambia’s supreme court to declare the October 1 elections illegitimate.

Two days after voting, Jammeh conceded defeat.

He says he’s  subsequently found irregularities in the process and wants a new election.

The UN Security Council, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States have said there was nothing wrong with the election won by Adam Barrow.

The presidents of Nigeria, Liberia and Ghana – Muhammadu Buhari, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and John Mahama – are in Banjul underlining this message.

The post Defeated Gambian president digs in appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Head of the regional economic bloc ECOWAS Marcel de Souza says Military intervention in Gambia is possible”if President Yahya Jammeh does not step down after having lost elections.

ECOWAS president  Marcel de Souza says diplomacy’s  the preferred path, but draconian measures will  have to be considered if it fails.

Presidents  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, and John Mahama of Ghana have spoken to Yayha Jammeh and president-elect Adama Barrow in an attempt to manage a peaceful transition of power in Gambia.

Johnson says the talks have not yielded an agreement.

This is not something that can be accomplished in a single day. They have to work on it.

The post ECOWAS might have to consider draconian measures against Yayha James appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The commission says the website is up again after a four-hour outage. An attempt to put up fake results failed.

It urged people to ignore the bogus figures circulating on social media.

President John Mahama is facing a strong challenge from main opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo, who’s confidently claiming an outright win.

Wednesday’s election passed off peacefully, but voting was postponed to Thursday in one constituency after voting material failed to arrive on time.

A run-off will be held later in the month if neither of the two main candidates secures more than 50% of the votes.

The campaign was dominated by Ghana’s faltering economy.

In the previous election in 2012, Mahama defeated Akufo-Addo by less than 300 000 votes.

The post Ghana election results hacked appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

He’s committed to hand power to a civilian leader, but shrugs off an African Union deadline to do this within a fortnight.

Ghanaian President John Mahama, who mediated transitional talks in Ougadougou, says he’s confident the Burkinabe army will hand power to a civilian leader in days rather than weeks.

Military leader, Lt Col Isaac Zida, who took power when President Blaise Campaore was forced out a week ago, won’t be held to a deadline.

He’s agreed to Burkina Faso having elections next November and says a civilian will lead the transition.

But he won’t commit on when he’ll hand over the reins.

He says it’s more critical to ensure a smooth process leading to those elections.

The post Stability trumps sanctions says Burkinabe military leader appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Their visit to Ougadougou comes ahead of tomorrow’s regional summit on events in the landlocked country of 18 million people.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, Ghana’s President John Mahama and their Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall were welcomed to Ougadougou by army officers.

They’re there to pressure the military to keep its promise of a speedy handover of power to a civilian government following the departure of Blaise Compaore after 27 years as president.

Canada’s conservative government’s taking an initiative in this regard.

It’s suspended its aid to the impoverished West African nation. Other donor countries are considering similar moves.

The post Canada suspends aid to Burkina Faso appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.