The US government has said that it will not give visas to officials from Sierra Leone who harmed the June elections in the country. This means they won’t be able to visit the US.
“This policy means that the United States will use visa restrictions against people who are thought to have harmed democracy in Sierra Leone. This can include people who have rigged elections or manipulated the voting process,” explained US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a statement.
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He said that people who scared or threatened voters, election observers, or civil society groups, or hurt human rights in Sierra Leone, would not be allowed to get US visas.
He also said that this would impact some of the family members.
The people who were on the blacklist were not mentioned in his statement.
President Julius Maada Bio, who was already in office, won the election by getting 56% of the votes. His main competition, Samura Kamara, who received 41%, said that the result was unfair and claimed that his election helpers were not given the chance to check the vote count.
The international observers of the election noticed issues with how the votes were being counted, especially with how open and clear the process was.
The campaign had many violent incidents involving the two main political parties.
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US refuses to issue visas to Sierra Leone election meddlers
