FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE (August 8, 2007) \u2013 Evangelical Covenant Church pastor Adam Phillips will help monitor presidential elections in this African nation on Thursday. The elections are the first free elections since a civil war ended in 2002.
\n
\nPhillips, pastor of Resurrection Covenant Church in Chicago, Illinois, traveled to Sierra Leone as co-chair of Micah Challenge USA, which is part of a global evangelical Christian organization that focuses on issues of justice and poverty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been a lot of good work by Sierra Leoneans with Democracy Sierra Leone, a Micah Challenge partner here, around promoting peaceful elections,\u201d Phillips says. The first ever vice-presidential and presidential debates were held last night and broadcast live on radio.<\/p>\n
Election monitors have been sent from around the world to help oversee the elections. Scattered violence has occurred leading up to the election, but the United Nations reports that the situation has remained largely calm.<\/p>\n
The top two candidates are Vice-President Solomon Berewa, of the ruling Sierra Leone People\u2019s Party (SLPP), and Ernest Bai Koroma, of the All People\u2019s Congress (APC).<\/p>\n
Sierra Leone is one of the world’s most poverty-stricken countries. The United Nations reports that most people live on less than two dollars a day. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the civil war that lasted from 1991-2002, and more than two million people \u2013 about one-third of the population \u2013 were displaced.<\/p>\n
Covenant News Service will follow the elections and have a more complete report.<\/p>\n