By Sayoh Kamara
The rapturous applause that greeted Dr. Kaifala Marah’s detailed presentation at the Tuesday, 6th February 2024 weekly press of the Ministry of Information and Civic Education was a testament to the expectation of majority of Sierra Leoneans who felt their votes on 24th June 2023 were either miscounted or not counted judiciously to reflect what they voted for.
As co-chair for the All Peoples Congress (ALC) party in Tripartite Committee on Electoral Reforms and Elections Systems he was exact in his clarification that the Committee will examine the June 24, 2023 multi-tier elections and the events leading up to the announcement of the results.
He said over two million Sierra Leoneans voted on that day but that majority of those Sierra Leoneans including the APC party remain dissatisfied with the outcome of the elections which prompted a standoff and a political imbroglio in the country.
When Dr. Marah therefore retorted to the co-chair for the Government, Dr. Emmanuel Gaima that to “examine” or to “Investigate” are two sides of the same coin, the reception from the well-attended press conference was remarkably assuring that his posture was in resonance with the expectation of most Sierra Leoneans.
“Tie the goat to the rope or tie the rope to the goat” according the professional cum politician literally means the same.
Although this might appear to indicate some level of semantic discordance between the two co-chairs, Dr. Marah and Dr. Gaima, earlier assurance from the latter that Government is committed to the implementation of the Dialogue recommendations also resonates with the expectation of International Partners and Moral Guarantors as the only sure means available to Sierra Leone to reposition itself as a democracy and a respecter of democratic principles.
In view of the expectation of most Sierra Leoneans, Dr. Marah however struck a note of caution to over exuberant bloggers and news manipulators to allow the Committee to do their work and reach their conclusion.
“Allow the Committee to the work assigned to us. Don’t preempt our conclusions,” he appealed, pointing out that their examination of the issues would be thorough such as to sufficiently inform our recommendations based on existing data from the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL), observation reports from International Observer Missions such as the Carter Centre and the European Union Observer Mission and the National Elections Watch of Sierra Leone.
The occasion also marked the signing of the working tool; the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Tripartite Committee.
