Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), based in Abuja, Nigeria, has officially registered a legal case against the Government of Sierra Leone concerning the highly disputed 2023 general elections.
The lawsuit, filed by “The Progressives and Others & 3 Others,” was formally entered into the court’s registry on July 23, 2025, under suit number ECW/CCJ/APP/36/25.
The Republic of Sierra Leone and “another” (identified as the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone in related commentary) are named as defendants.
The core of the complaint demands accountability over the 2023 Sierra Leonean elections, which some opposition members continue to regard as inconclusive due to alleged lack of proper disclosure of official results.
According to the court’s notice, the Sierra Leonean government and the Electoral Commission are required to file a defense within thirty (30) days of receiving the application. Failure to do so could result in a default judgment, meaning the case would proceed and a ruling could be delivered without further input from the defense.
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio was re-elected for a second term in 2023 in an election the EU and the Carter Centre said was marred with fraud and malpractice. The EU, in particular, said the results lacked statistical consistencies.
In a similar vein, the leader of the main opposition party All People’s Congress (APC), Samura Kamara refused to accept the result urging the election body, the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) to publish the full results of the 2023 multi-tier election.
Recently, the government and the APC committed to peace-thanks to the US, UK and the EU among others who set up a Committee to look into the ills of the 2023 elections. Named the Tripartite Committee, key members from both parties agreed to work on 169 recommendations in June 2024. However, the Committee decided to focus on 80 key recommendations which include transparency, strong electoral systems, and institutional and legislative reforms.
Despite the Tripartite Committee report, Dr. Kamara has maintained his demand for a re-election, citing “divergent areas” in the report where the committee failed to propose solutions for the disputed election results. According to Kamara, APC’s own processed results indicated that it received 57.15% of the vote, compared to President Bio’s 39.40%.
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