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A new national survey reveals that public trust in Sierra Leone’s Electoral Commission (ECSL) has fallen to a historic low, with just 34% of Sierra Leoneans expressing confidence in the institution responsible for managing the country’s elections.
This marks a major decline of 30 percentage points since 2018, when 64% of citizens reported trusting the ECSL.
The findings, released in a report by Afrobarometer on December 15, 2025, show the second-steepest decline in trust among all key state institutions, surpassed only by the drop in confidence in Parliament.
The survey, conducted in March-April 2025 by the Institute for Governance Reform, highlights a crisis of legitimacy for the ECSL, especially as the 2028 general elections approach.
The sharp drop in public confidence is largely attributed to the contentious 2023 general election. The main opposition party, the All People’s Congress (APC), rejected the election results, and international observers, including the European Union Election Observation Mission and the Carter Center, raised concerns over transparency in the vote tabulation and voter registration processes.
The unresolved grievances from that election appear to have left a lasting negative impact on public opinion.
The decline in trust is notably polarized along political lines. While half (50%) of supporters of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) report trust in the ECSL, only 15% of APC supporters share the same sentiment. Among those with no party affiliation, just 24% express trust in the commission.
Regional patterns reflect this political divide. Trust is highest in the Southern Region, an SLPP stronghold, at 53%, and lowest in the Western Area, which includes the capital Freetown and is an opposition base, at just 15%.
The Eastern Region follows the South at 40%, while trust in the Northern and Northwest regions stands at 26% and 28%, respectively.
The ECSL has faced accusations of bias from both major parties in previous elections, including in 2007 and 2012. However, the current survey results represent the lowest level of trust in the commission’s history, raising serious concerns for the credibility of the upcoming 2028 elections.
Dr. Fredline M’Cormack-Hale, Afrobarometer’s co-Principal Investigator for Sierra Leone, noted that when a significant portion of the population perceives the institution managing elections as partial, it undermines the entire electoral process.
“Restoring this trust will require not just technical reforms, but a demonstrated commitment to impartiality and transparency long before the 2028 elections,” Dr. M’Cormack-Hale stated.
While the ECSL still enjoys more trust than institutions such as Parliament, local councils, and the police, its credibility lags behind that of the Sierra Leone Army (68%) and President (54%).
