Sierra Leone's elections may look like a party – but pride in the polls is serious

The crowd making its way down the windy stone streets at the center of Freetown could easily be mistaken for a carnival. Women shaded by wide-brimmed hats stroke feather boas curled around their necks and cool themselves with red plastic fans. Men dressed in skin-tight suits pose on top of cars. Children dance to the beat of Nigerian pop music. A man standing on top of a van shouts “A, P,” into a loudspeaker, to which the crowd responds with a deafening “C!”

A mix of festival-like excitement and tense pre-election jitters pervades the streets of Sierra Leone as the country prepares to go to the polls this week, voting in a new president, parliamentarians, and local council members.

Sixteen years ago, Sierra Leone had just emerged from an eleven-year civil war: a conflict in which more than 50,00