Despite all the assurances being given by both the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) and our international development partners of their commitment to peace, national cohesion and security, the people of Sierra Leone that experienced the devastation of the 11 year brutal civil war are much concerned that if the electoral impasse that has engulfed all manner and aspect of living is allowed to continue without it being resolved we will be reduced to a state where these two elephants and their many supporters will engage in a fight that will only affect the grass, the poor and mostly vulnerable people of Sierra Leone.
Members of the international community must pay very close attention to the deadly game being played by the two parties that have ruled this country and are equally blamed for all the issues that continue to affect our national development and peace. Both parties for all they care would give a hoot about what happens to the suffering masses if anything untoward ends up happening as a result of the continued state of anxiety the un-resolving of the electoral dispute concerning the June 24, 2023 presidential elections result continues to inflict on the psyche of the entire society.
The people are tired of the games played by incumbent regimes not just this one during every electoral cycle that would almost always put us in a state of fear and apprehension that we are heading into a state of all out running street battles between protesters belonging to the losing side and the state security apparatus wholly dedicated to propping up their bosses, the incumbent regime, in power, even to the detriment of the very people they are sworn to serve and protect, whose taxes pay their salaries.
Sierra Leone is tethering on the brink. The lack of peace and the insecurity the society feels is palpable. All across the country the discussions centre around the work of the Tripartite Committee and the long and undue wait the public has been subjected to as they anticipate the end of the process. The continued refusal of the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone especially the chief electoral commissioner to release the demanded disaggregated polling station data per station continues to act as a hindrance to the hopes and aspirations of the voting public to elect the right people making the right promises to end our 63 years of transition from dependency to true independence hence sovereignty.
Both the APC and SLPP are being seen as misleading the people. They have done a lot that has affected the confidence the people had reposed in them. The involvement of the APC in the running of the government despite their initial boycott based on their rejection of the announcement of the incumbent president as the winner of the June 24 presidential elections to the people seems like tacit acceptance of the result. By forming part of the government they cannot turn around and convince the people that the regime is illegitimate.
On the ruling party side of things, by agreeing to the terms of reference of the Tripartite Committee at one stage and to now be saying that the only election they are looking forward to is the 2028 elections cycle puts to pay the work the Tripartite Committee is busy trying to accomplish to resolve our elections narratives going forward. By insisting on 2028 the ruling party is saying that even if a recommendation is made for there to be a rerun or runoff of the discredited June 24 elections, the regime will not be willing to entertain such a recommendation.
On the part of our international development partners, what kind of message does the approval of the MCC grant to this government sends to the people? After being one of the first set of people to categorically reject the announced presidential election result as a statistical inconsistency, and with one of the measures aimed at securing such a grant being free, fair and credible elections, the United States government now granting the Bio led regime the MCC grant has sent the message that our electoral impasse is over and they have accepted the Julius Maada Bio regime as the legitimate winner of the June 24, 2023 polls. The granting of the MCC grant is also an endorsement of the Mohamed Konneh announced June 24 presidential result.
We the people, the grass that will get to suffer while the US and other countries come in with boats and airplanes to repatriate their citizens are pleading with all, the APC, the SLPP and our international development partners who also act as our moral guarantors to stop playing politics and politicking with our lives and properties we have painfully managed to secure and build.
We demand clarity on what is really going on about what really happened on June 24, 2023. We renounce the state of anxiety that your back and forth dilly-dallying is wrecking on our collective psyche, because when these two elephants fight, when these two tribal hegemons tangle, it is only we the grass that really gets to suffer.
