The main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party has finally broken silence since the announcement of presidential election results for the 24 June 2023 polls by the Chief Electoral Commissioner and National Returning Officer of the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL), Mohamed K. Konneh.
A position statement issued last Friday 30 June, signed by the APC party National Secretary General, Lansana Dumbuya Esq, states that, “We are resolved to reject out rightly the results produced by the ECSL.”
The APC Position Statement informed that the APC party has for the past five years decided to absorb the pain and untold sufferings the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) subjected the opposition to, yet they as a party decided in the best interest of the people of the country to allow peace and stability to reign. The opposition said that they can no longer tolerate injustice, tyranny, and the usurpation of power in Sierra Leone.
“This is what dictatorship looks like and that is why as a party, we owe it to the people of Sierra Leone to stand up for democracy, justice and unity” the party’s Position Statement reads.
Justifying the reason for the party’s silence since Konneh announced President Julius Maada Bio as re-elected president, the Position Statement reflected on the civil and outright disrespect for the voices, wishes and aspirations of the people of Sierra Leone by the ECSL Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Konneh.
The APC party said the illegal announcement of Julius Maada Bio as president was done in cahoots with the Chie Electoral Commissioner, party members of the incumbent SLPP and Mr. Julius Maada Bio himself.
The APC party accused the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF), Sierra Leone Police (SLP), Office of National Security (ONS) and the Sierra Leone Judiciary of undermining democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the country.
The opposition party Position Statement further explained that what culminated in the rogue announcement of the fraudulent presidential election results on June 25, was not just a naked theft of the votes of the suffering masses.
According to the APC party Position Statement, such display gross human rights violation by security forces represents the biggest threat to democracy, unity and the survival of the country.
“The gangster nature of their enterprises and the proclivity for violence is not a one-off activity but a calculated strategy of a complete state captured by an ethnocentric cabal who wish to impose a totalitarian system legitimized by shambolic democratic exercise,” the APC Position Statement reads, and furthered that the said battle is not for the APC alone or its leaders, noting, like all totalitarian system, the gradual takeover of power and elite captured of all state institutions including human right institutions and Civil Society Organization often do not end with a desire to rig elections.
“The road to authoritarianism, as most of us have experienced in the last five years, and in last week, is tainted by the brutal murder of innocent civilians, violent, silencing of democratic opposition voices, a dangerous strategy of divided and rule through the weaponization of tribalism and elimination of rational civic dialogue” the opposition APC Position Statement reads.
It adds that; “The APC party in the last few days should not be mistaken as an acceptance of this obnoxious announcement of illegal electoral result but was an opportunity to document evidence and avoid falling into a mindless traps of violence that had been planned by this monstrous regime”.
The statement also disclosed that the ECSL does not only try to steal the president election, but also working assiduously to give the SLPP a 2/3 majority in parliament and take a comfortable lead in local council across the country.
“To carry out this broad daylight robbery in a modern 21st Century world, is not only shocking but goes to validate our concerns and agitations since 2018,” the APC party Position Statement reads.
The statement referred to the above-mentioned position as something the APC party has strenuously attempted to put across locally and internationally that the SLPP regime lacks the moral compass to work within the bounds of civility and the rule of law.
“The Bio and his PAOPA henchmen have no regards for human rights and democratic principles” the statement reads.
