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Former President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma has said that the use of new media creates distrust between incumbents and main political parties in Africa.
“Manipulation of new media is causing mistrust between incumbents and main political parties,” the Ex-president stated in an interview with PSC Report in March.
Koroma said although democracy is being challenged globally in recent decades and especially with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the new media is also proving to be challenging for African democracy in this 21st century.
Speaking on the history of democracy in the region, the Ex-president said that most African nations experienced political instability like unfree and unfair conduct of elections lack of political pluralism that led to civil wars. He added that some of the precursors back then included disputed election results
He, however, expressed hope in the future of democracy in Africa.
“While the current picture of Africa’s democracy trajectory looks somewhat gloomy, it is far better than what occurred 20 to 30 years ago,” the former Sierra Leonean President said.
Koroma said that although there is recurrence of electoral violence in some parts of the continent, “the phenomenon is declining, particularly in scale and consequences”.
He added that the root causes had been discontent over economic hardship and the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor. He furthered that ethno-regional division has also affected the region’s democracy over the past decades.
Speaking from his experience as an election observer in the continent, the Ex-president Koroma said he noticed a commonality of “considerable mistrust” between incumbents and opposition parties.
He added that it is such mistrust that result in the use of state security to “harass, intimidate, arrest and detain opposition politicians” in the region.
He ended by sharing some lessons as former president to the African Union to manage governance deficit including engendering political pluralism, competition and tolerance among political actors.
Sierra Leone will go to the polls this June and Koroma’s party, the All People’s Congress (APC) will be competing against the incumbent Sierra Leone People’s Party and several other parties.
The APC’s Dr. Samura Kamara lost twice to the SLPP’s Julius Maada Bio in 2018. The two are set to face each other again on the 24 June Presidential Election.
