According to Section 42 of the Anti-Corruption Act, 2008, which deals with the abuse of office: “(1) Any public officer who uses his office to improperly confer an advantage on himself or any other person commits an offence. (2) A person guilty of an offence under subsection (1) shall on conviction be liable to a fine not less than thirty million Leones or to imprisonment for a term not less than 3 years or to both such fine and imprisonment.”
Section 43 of the same law, which deals with the abuse of position, states: “A public officer who knowingly abuses his position in the performance or failure to perform an act, in contravention of any law, in the discharge of his functions or duties has commit an offence and shall on conviction be liable to fine not less than thirty million Leones or to imprisonment for a term not less than 3 years or to both fine and imprisonment.”
As soon as Chief Electoral Commissioner Mohamed Kenewui Konneh announced the result of the June 24, 2023 presidential election naming the incumbent as winner, his announcement was widely rejected by those that had elections observers at all the polling stations across the country.
They all categorically stated that the result Konneh announced couldn’t have been the way the voting happened, saying among other things that the result was full of statistical inconsistencies.
The announced result was reduced to an institutional coup by the regime against the people of Sierra Leone for which someone should be held responsible.
A year after Konneh announced the incumbent president as winner of the discredited presidential elections, and despite multiple calls by all parties involved including the Tripartite Committee established to look into the 24 June and other elections, he refuses to hand over the disaggregated voting data per polling station insisting on his independence as an authority.
His refusal forms the basis for the widespread belief that the incumbent couldn’t have won the elections and the allegation that he and those involved had cooked the results to give the incumbent an advantage.
This leads us to the calls by the US Ambassador, the Carter Centre and the challenger and widely held winner of the 24 June 2023 elections, Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara for all those involved in elections thievery to be held legally responsible for the issues that have beset the nation since he announced the presidential result.
Therefore, no matter how long, no matter the protection Konneh and company continue to enjoy from the incumbent regime and the judiciary, we the people of Sierra Leone will eventually get to the bottom of what really happened on 24 June 2023.
All of those involved in cheating the people of Sierra Leone, no matter where they go, will experience the long arm of the law and be brought to justice for using electoral injustice to deny the people the leader of their choice, for denying the winner his just due and the people from experiencing the plans and actions of the winner to alleviate the years of hardships and suffering under the incumbent regime.
The people of Sierra Leone are tired of the retributive nature of our electoral process, the long planned rigging that starts with the firing and hiring process of key people from key elections management bodies and their replacements with executive surrogates and the manipulation of elections results, even against the expressed voting wish of the electorate.
This stealing of the people’s mandate has always left the country in a state of anxiety and insecurity. The five year repeated cycle of national insecurity has to end, and it must end with the prosecution of all found wanting and their jailing to announce the arrival of a new day and a breaking away from the elections rigging practices of the past and to end the culture of impunity.
If we can get our elections narrative right then we will start having responsible people leading our nation and put to an end the corruption that has eaten into every fabric of our society. The stealing of the people’s votes is the highest form of treason against the people and state. All along those found culpable have managed to avoid prosecution, which further emboldens their successors. The long arm of the law must be brought to bear on all those who have continued to deny the people the leadership of their choice and render the state insecure thereby derailing our national development efforts.
There will indeed be no hiding place for elections thieves. Those involved in the rigging, the violence, the stealing of ballot boxes, the denial of people of their true identity thereby disenfranchising them, the chasing of people out of their homes and villages, the militarisation of our city streets by state security officers who have taken sides in the political process and the fear they instil in the people which leads to many of them not casting their votes for a leader of their choice, all will be brought to give an answer in the courts of law.
By their collective action they bring to question the integrity of our electoral process and the tainting of the victory of the election winner. Change must come, and it will be effective once we ensure that all elections thieves are not given any sanctuary from the rule of law. No matter how long or how far they go, they must be assured that the long arm of the law will reach them.
