District council
Like the other fifteen districts of Sierra Leone, the Western Area Rural District has its own directly elected district government, known as a district council, headed by a directly elected district council chairman. This person leads the district council executive branch and enforces laws passed by members of the district council. The current district council chairman is Joseph Holland Cole of the All People's Congress (APC). He was elected with 53% of the votes in the 2018 Western Area Rural District council election.