By Sylvanus Fornah Koroma (What A Man!)
For those who ever doubted that rigging elections are not part of the Paopa regime. Let it be known that Mr. Julius Maada Bio has joined his wife in acknowledging and endorsing a group of lawyers from the Madam Tuma Jabbie Gento-Kamara team of aspirants for the 2024 executive elections for the Sierra Leone Bar Association (SLBA). This acknowledgment happened when it became public knowledge that the General Legal Council (GLC) has made it public that it is investigating the event of the inconclusive-crooked and so-called elections on May 18, 2024, during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of SLBA in Kenema. In those so-called elections, the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) fired teargas in the hall during the said elections, and there is evidence that the SLP took instructions from the Anti-Corruption Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala.
For those who need to know, in that hall in Kenema, lawyers protested to his face against his imposition as the Returning Officer and for failing to adhere to the principles of fairness and justice in executing the functions of a Returning Officer for such a prominent body as the SLBA. He was drawn to attention that his conduct was on camera and that he was videoed for evidence of his fraudulent conduct and rigging of elections by sharing ballot papers to assumably his cronies and their own cronies’ cronies with no form of verification. At the time of his misconduct as the imposed Returning Officer in the conduct of the election, everyone was in the hall including people who were not lawyers, lawyers who were not members of the SLBA, and lawyers who were members of the SLBA but were not on the list of the qualified persons fit to vote on the occasion were all present. This bit of information was so important because the Program provided a closed session period where guests were to be asked to leave the hall, and issues about the membership were to be dealt with purely by qualified SLBA members.
For those in the All Peoples Congress (APC) who want to sacrifice the Party that has contributed to making you known in the political space by failing to do all that it takes to protect the June 2023 multi-tier votes, be reminded that Mr. Julius Maada Bio can deceive you at any time for what he may call ‘for the good of the country’ which is just a way to suit his convenience. What I say about him are things of fact he has said and are on record. Therefore those of you in the APC who are quick and gullible to accept things put before you or told to you, be warned that certain people you have to cross-check and even go back to history before agreeing to consider their statements, and one such person is the Leader of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) Mr. Julius Maada Bio who has openly told Sierra Leoneans that he is in politics to protect the SLPP from being bullied. Would the APC leadership stand by and allow the leadership of SLPP bully the APC? The current APC leadership should deeply ponder over this rhetorical question and stand tall if the leadership is fit for purpose! A few days ago, there was a video or audio of the National leader of the SLPP who doubles as the head of government by virtue of Mohamed Konneh’s announcement on June 27, 2023, wherein the SLPP government leader was trivializing the Tripartite Committee with the question, “What is the Tripartite Committee?”
For those who care to know what the Tripartite Committee is, and or those who know but do not mind a reminder: The Tripartite Committee is a result of the political action taken by the APC when the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone(ECSL) and Mohamed Konneh only announced a blanket figure and failed to provide the official results that led to what is now described as an imaginary figure. The Tripartite Committee is part of the Electoral Systems and Management Bodies Review which is one of the 8-points Resolution in the Communique that was signed as the National Unity Agreement on October 18, 2023. The Tripartite Committee has its Terms Of Reference (TOR) that was publicly agreed upon and signed to the knowledge of the Head of State as announced by Mohamed Konneh with the mandate to examine the June 2023 elections. As the name implies, the Tripartite Committee constitutes 3 bodies of persons, which are (1) The Government of Sierra Leone, (2) The APC, and (3) The Development Partners also known as the International Community. These 3 bodies are represented by 8 members each and the Committee is co-chaired by 3 leaders of the said 3 bodies. The co-chairs are Dr Emmanuel Gaima for the government, Dr Kelfala Marah for the APC, and the Development Partners (International Community).
For those who still care to know more, the Tripartite Committee in executing its mandate to examine the June 2023 elections had a deadlock on issues, and the APC members of the Tripartite Committee officially reached out to the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) to get the breakdown results of its first announced 60%, and the breakdown analysis of the entire announcement of the results that were made on June 27, 2023, of the June 24, 2023 multi-tier elections. Instead of fulfilling the expected mantra of transparency, the ECSL tried to bluff its way with arrogance as it noted that the letter signed by the APC Members of the Tripartite Committee was non-compliant with the administrative procedures as contained in the Terms Of Reference (TOR) of Cross-Party Committee on the Electoral Systems and Management Bodies Review. Contrary to the position of ECSL, it must be noted that the APC Tripartite Committee members’ request to ask ECSL to publish and gazette the June 2023 elections results in the first place was not out of its scope of examining the June 2023 elections. Secondly, the request conformed with the exercise of the function of ECSL which the 1991 Constitution highlighted in the first limb of section 32(11) aforesaid to publish as stated in sections 52(b) and 93 of the Public Elections Act, 2022 (PEA 2022).
For those who are signatories to the principal document of the Tripartite Committee and are yet acting the role of doubting Thomases of what the Tripartite is, indicates some serious challenges in the coming days on the outcome of the Tripartite Committee Report. Sane thinkers can now easily predict that there are going to be consensual and non-consensual reporting. That outcome of the Tripartite report is where and when Sierra Leoneans would start to realize whether Sierra Leone is ready to stop electoral injustice in order to usher in real peace, unity, and development, or otherwise, continue with the wrong and mistaken belief that bullying would continue to be tolerated in modern-day Sierra Leone politics.
For those who care to know, our laws (the Supreme Court judgment on the combined cases SC6/2018 and SC7/2018) have a precedent in which the legal phrase, ‘cause of action’ has thoroughly and exhaustively explains and guides plaintiffs/petitioners for matters of election petitions taken to court. ‘Cause of action’ is a term that refers to a set of facts or legal reasons that give someone the right to seek a legal remedy against another party. It is about the basis for a lawsuit, indicating the grounds on which the plaintiff claims to have been wronged or harmed, such as breach of contract, negligence, or defamation. In BENNET V WHITE (1910) 2K.B. 643: “A ‘cause of action’ is the entire set of facts that gives rise to an enforceable claim; the phrase comprises every fact which, if traversed, the plaintiff must prove in order to obtain judgment.” Therefore, in approaching the court, one has to be sure that the evidence is there and that it is not loosely scattered expecting the court to fix it. This is one of the principal reasons the APC insists that the ECSL should perform its mandatory functions by publishing and gazetting the June 2023 election results and maintaining the mantra of transparency. The gazetted results are the official results to be used as evidence by any petitioner to determine the irregularities, fraud, and any other reason against the announced results. This explains the wisdom of the drafters of the statutes in using the word ‘declaration’ instead of announcement or proclamation! The declared results must be embodied with an instrument in support of the results received in section 51(2) of the Public Elections Act of 2022, otherwise, there is no need to vote but to simply allow the National Returning Officer to announce whatever he wishes just as Konneh announced a figment of his imagination to impose on us his tribesman in the presidential elections and his political party as the majority in the parliamentary elections. Would such imposition be accepted in modern-day Sierra Leone? No!!!
For those who do not know, Mohamed Konneh (ECSL) announced his tribesman as the winner of the Presidential elections of June 2023 with a blanket figure, and he did the same by announcing his political party the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) as the majority party. Mohamed Konneh has been evidentially associated with the SLPP over the years. This is why when asked to show how he arrived at his blanket-announced figures by publishing and gazetting the results, Mohamed Konneh and some of his cohorts resorted to threatening the citizens of Sierra Leone. But, the earlier they know that people are determined to put an end to such impunity the better for all! The leader of SLPP has reiterated that Sierra Leone is for all and not just for a set of Sierra Leoneans! So, if Konneh is sure that what he announced is correct, then he should not wait to be ordered to do the needful to publish and gazette the results that he supposedly received and announced. The Tripartite Committee and its parent body the National Unity Agreement were formed basically to address the issue regarding the publishing and gazetting of the June 2023 elections results to foster the legal requirements in section 54(1) of the Public Elections Act of 2022 (PEA 2022). So far as many of us know, the June 2023 elections are not yet over or are far from being over because the declaration of the results is incomplete. The declaration of the results must be embodied in an instrument that contains the results the Returning Officer received from the presiding officers in tallied, computed, and certified forms as provided in section 51(2). These are the results the petitioner(s) would precisely use in court to suit his/their cause of action to determine the correctness or incorrectness of the announced results by employing the Results Reconciliation Forms (RRF) to prove irregularities, fraud, and or other reason(s).
For those who need to be reminded, or at least join one of Umaru Fofanah’s recent reminders on his Facebook post on the quote from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) when it was set up in Sierra Leone to investigate the cause of the bloody civil war in the 1990s: “Prior to 1991, successive regimes became increasingly impervious to the wishes and needs of the majority. Instead of implementing positive and progressive policies, each regime perpetuated the ills and self-serving machinations left behind by its predecessor. A number of internal factors accumulated, which made armed rebellion an increasingly attractive option for many disaffected Sierra Leoneans. These factors included unrestrained greed, corruption, and bad governance. Institutional collapse reduced the vast majority of people to a state of deprivation. Government accountability was non-existent. Political expression and dissent had been crushed. Democracy and the rule of law were dead. By 1991, Sierra Leone was a deeply divided society, full of the potential for violence. It required only the slightest spark for this violence to be ignited.” Do I need to show that what is happening now is even worse? Did we not see the Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Francis Ben Kaifala openly, shamelessly, and arrogantly usurping the position of the Returning Officer to rig the executive elections for the Sierra Leone Bar Association (SLBA) in Kenema on May 18, 2024, to favour his Kailahun Sister and the majority of his tribesmen/women? Was there not an attempt to pass a Bill for non-financial accountability for the presidency? What is or are the reason(s) for the removal of the Auditor General, Mrs. Lara Taylor-Pearce from office in recent years? Why was lawyer Joy Bayoh locked up in a cell quite recently? Do you not think that electoral injustice is a recipe to keep peace away from Sierra Leoneans? Sierra Leoneans need peace, but we all know that peace without justice is a sham! Therefore, most Sierra Leoneans prefer justice now than ever before and it must start with the immediate implementation of electoral justice in the June 2023 elections.
For those who need to know what is happening now in Sierra Leone, Sierra Leoneans are resolutely determined to put an end to the impunity of electoral rigging, starting with the June 2023 multi-tier elections. For those who need to know what is happening now in Sierra Leone, United States Ambassador Hunt posted that he was honored to host a reception highlighting the U.S. commitment to supporting ‘LGBTI+persons’ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and other identities that fall under the broader spectrum of non-heteronormative and non-cisnormative sexual orientations and gender identities. The “+” symbol includes other identities such as queer, questioning, asexual, pansexual, and others not explicitly mentioned in the acronym) and their fight for equal rights and opportunities. I hope the American Ambassador Hunt is a respecter of culture. However, I am personally asking to know the views of our Sierra Leonean religious and moral guarantors in this new development. I am also seeking to know the views of Civil Society Organizations on this upcoming development that the American Ambassador Hunt is now championing in current-day Sierra Leone. Hope to hear comments on this development everywhere in all the corners of Sierra Leone this coming month and months ahead.
