Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Stabilization, And Nation-Building in an African State: The 2007 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Sierra Leone (Aspects OF THIRD WORLD DEVELOPMENT IN THE EARLY 21ST Century) (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Every general election since Sierra Leone became independent of Britain in April 1961 has either been preceded by or held in the aftermath of a major political controversy or some other crisis that significantly altered the nation's political landscape. The promise of free and fair elections at independence dissipated within a few short years, beginning in 1967 when the military intervened to stop the transfer of political power from Prime Minister Albert M. Margai of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) to the leader of the opposition All People's Congress (APC), Siaka P. Stevens. Pre-civil war general elections (1967-86) ended Sierra Leone's fragile parliamentary system of government and was replaced by one-party rule with an imperial presidency. Sharp economic declines, political violence, electoral fraud, and corruption distorted the electoral process. This state of affairs culminated in a brutal civil war (1991-2002), precipitated by Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in an attempt to overthrow President Joseph S. Momoh's APC government. The multiparty Constitution of 1991 ended one-party rule but remained in abeyance as the civil war ground on.