IV 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 548 
Encouraging the Government of Sierra Leone to abide by their promise 
to a peaceful and credible electoral process. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 23, 2023 
Mr. ALLRED (for himself and Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Encouraging the Government of Sierra Leone to abide by 
their promise to a peaceful and credible electoral process. 
Whereas Sierra Leone held four successful elections, includ-
ing two transfers of power to the opposition since 2002, 
following the end of a decade-long civil war that claimed 
more than 50,000 lives and countless casualties; 
Whereas the people of Sierra Leone will return to the polls 
in 2023 for the country’s fifth general election, which will 
include a Presidential, parliamentary, and local council 
races; 
Whereas the upcoming elections will take place amid the 
country facing economic challenges and rising inflation; 
Whereas the African Development Bank (AfDB) reported Si-
erra Leone’s inflation rose to 26.1 percent in 2022 from 
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•HRES 548 IH 
11.9 percent in 2021, driven by food and fuel inflation, 
and depreciation of the leone as a function of Russia’s in-
vasion of Ukraine and the COVID–19 pandemic; 
Whereas Sierra Leone has a long history of politicization 
along ethnic lines with ethnopolitical cleavages identified 
in electoral results; 
Whereas the Afrobarometer reported a noticeable decline in 
welcoming attitudes toward people of different ethnicities 
and political affiliations over the last two years; 
Whereas, in 2020, the Armed Conflict Location & Event 
Data Project (ACLED) found that Sierra Leone has 
been experiencing a slow increase in political violence as 
early as 2014, peaking around the 2018 elections and re-
maining at high levels since; 
Whereas the country’s police force has been implicated in the 
excessive use of force, notably during an August 2022 
protest in which more than 20 protesters and several offi-
cers were killed in Freetown; 
Whereas, since 2018, the International Republic Institute re-
ported trust in the Sierra Leone’s National Electoral 
Commission (NEC) has fallen by 49 percent with only 18 
percent of Sierra Leoneans polled identifying they trust 
the NEC ‘‘a great deal’’; 
Whereas independent journalists, media outlets, and press 
freedom advocates expressed their ongoing concerns over 
political elites’ use of libel and sedition laws to subvert 
reporting on elections and high-level corruption; 
Whereas women’s participation in politics, including represen-
tation in Parliament, key appointments as ministers or 
other senior administrative positions in the government, 
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remains at unequal levels and ‘‘a big issue’’, according to 
the country’s Ministry of Gender and Children Affairs; 
Whereas women who participate politically in the country re-
port ‘‘suffocating intimidation’’ by the country’s security 
forces, including through arbitrary arrests and other 
forms of intimidation by police presence; 
Whereas despite upticks in political and social challenges, the 
Global Peace Index still rates the country as the fifth- 
most peaceful country in Africa and 50th in the world as 
of 2022; 
Whereas Afrobarometer reported that among 30 African 
countries regularly surveyed since 2011, Sierra Leone is 
the only country where support for democratic elections 
increased significantly by 11 percentage points over the 
recent decade; 
Whereas, in February 2023, Sierra Leone signed into law the 
Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act 
(GEWE), a historic and monumental bill that establishes 
a 30-percent quota for women’s participation in govern-
ment for both appointed administrative positions, ambas-
sador roles, and elected positions in Parliament and local 
council seats; 
Whereas the United States and Sierra Leone share a deep 
and entwined relationship with thousands of Sierra 
Leoneans and their descendants residing in the United 
States today; 
Whereas the United States and Sierra Leone are linked by 
a complex history stemming from the Atlantic slave trade 
in which large numbers of African slaves from present- 
day Sierra Leone were sent to the then-colonies of Geor-
gia and South Carolina; 
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Whereas many descendants of former slaves in the United 
States, known as the Gullah, still reside in the same re-
gion of the former southeastern colonies that were able 
to preserve much of their Sierra Leonean cultural herit-
age such as a dialect of creole similar to Sierra Leone 
Krio, and other customs; 
Whereas Sierra Leone is a recipient of significant United 
States foreign assistance to improve the lives of Sierra 
Leoneans through strategic investments in democracy 
and governance, health service delivery, and economic 
growth; and 
Whereas the United States underscored its commitment to 
expanding and deepening its partnership with African 
countries and working to bolster democracy and strength-
en electoral processes during the 2021 Summit for De-
mocracy and the 2022 United States-Africa Leaders 
Summit: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) reaffirms its long standing commitment to 
deepen relations between the people and the Govern-
ments of the United States and Sierra Leone; 
(2) supports the continued efforts of the people, 
civil society, and members of the diaspora of Sierra 
Leone in their undeniable rights to free, fair, cred-
ible, and transparent elections; 
(3) urges all parties to pursue electoral peti-
tions through appropriate channels in an impartial, 
efficient, and timely manner; 
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(4) strongly encourages all parties to monitor 
and mitigate the use of inflammatory rhetoric that 
could incentivize political violence and contribute to 
greater ethnopolitical rifts; 
(5) calls on the Government of Sierra Leone to 
uphold its commitments to transparency, account-
ability, and good governance, including by— 
(A) resolving any potential administrative 
hurdles to effectively allow elections to take 
place in a timely fashion; 
(B) implementing necessary mechanisms to 
monitor and curb dissemination of misinforma-
tion and mitigate inflammatory rhetoric; and 
(C) ensuring that statutes established by 
the Gender Equality and Women’s Empower-
ment Act (GEWE) are adhered to; and 
(6) encourages the United States Government 
to continue necessary engagements with the Govern-
ment of Sierra Leone, underscoring the need to up-
hold free and fair elections in accordance with the 
country’s constitution. 
Æ 
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