SIERRA LEONE is regarded as a model of post-conflict reconstruction. An 11-year civil war that left some 50,000 dead by 2002 was overcome with the help of blue-hatted UN peacekeepers. In 2007 power changed hands in fair elections for only the second time in the country's history and this November citizens will once again go to the polls.

But all is not well. Sierra Leone's president, Ernest Bai Koroma, has forced the UN mission chief out of his job in order to improve his re-election chances, diplomats say. Michael von der Schulenburg was abruptly moved on the orders of UN bosses in New York on February 6th following appeals from the president.

On December 22nd Mr von der Schulenburg had warned a senior UN official, Lynn Pascoe, against “a situation in which I would have to tell everybody that the president wants me out of the country and the UN has readily complied”. That is indeed what happened.

Foreign diplomats confirm that in September the president asked the UN to have Mr von der Schulenburg removed, possibly questioning his impartiality. Two months later he repeated the request in writing, though he now denies this.

Mr von der Schulenburg is deemed to have done a good job. He vastly reduced the UN presence in Sierra Leone—a rare achievement in an organisation often unwilling to put itself out of business. He also acted as a valued mediator between political parties in an environment where disputes can still easily turn violent. He met opposition leaders but did not favour them. Yet his even-handedness alone seems to have been enough to incur the wrath of the president.

That the UN agreed to move Mr von der Schulenburg establishes a bad precedent. Given how much blood and treasure it has expended in Sierra Leone, the episode damages its credibility. It also bodes ill for the coming election.