Transition without Rapture: Sierra Leone’s Transfer Election of 1996

This essay reviews the context, participants, results and democratic relevance of the 1996 presidential and parliamentary elections in Sierra Leone. Although these elections provided a rare mechanism for changing the government, they did not herald a transformation in the institutional practices of government. The 1996 elections represented a fleeting moment of triumph for civil society, but the government that was elected failed to tackle the very problems that undermined its predecessors, namely security and corruption. What emerges from the review is the recognition that the commitment of Sierra Leone’s political elite to democratic change lags behind the democratic aspirations of popular sectors. The failure of the newly elected government to disavow the spoils of its predecessors can invite authoritarian reversal. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French.