As parliamentary election in Constituency 110 in the Western Rural district draws near, former Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone Chief Sam Sumana leads a campaign for the return of Kadie Davies to parliament.
Chief Sam still remains the flag-bearer favourite for am All People’s Congress (APC) convention set to be held quite soon. Madam Davies was the winner of the parliamentary seat in that constituency in the 2018 general elections, but a petition heard in the court deprived her of the seat as a re-run was ordered.
Chief Sam, clad in his red attire with a red-coloured Microphone, was addressing a jubilant and ecstatic crowd of All People’s Congress (APC) supporters who have expressed firm intention to vote for the incumbent, Madam Davies.
The supporters say Kadie Davies is their choice, and they wait for the ballot box to show their loyalty to him. Community people as well party supporters sang and dance with the former Vice President and flag-bearer favourite.
In his campaign Message, Chief Sam reminded APC supporters about the forceful manner in which Kadie Davies was removed under the ‘PAOPA’ philosophy. Chief Sam who is sure of an election victory also told supporters that Madam Davies would win the coming election the same way she won it quite recently.
He urged the stakeholders to talk to the youths to see the need to vote for their rightful candidate for effective and competent representation. “Do not vote for micro-credit, but vote for what APC has done for you,” he urged.
The supporters seemed very much responsive to statements showing that they are fed up with the PAOPA administration. Madam Kadie Davies is among ten APC parliamentarians removed from parliament following petitions heard in the High Court of Sierra Leone.
Nine of the ten members were completely disqualified from returning to parliament, and their runners-up in the Sierra Leone People’s Party were sworn in.
The judicial move was widely criticised by the main opposition noting that the judiciary has no power under the law for runners up to be sworn in.
The APC has always cited the country’s law on elections, the Public Elections Act of 2012 to challenge the action of the judiciary. What was more embarrassing and frustrating for the APC, none of their petitions were heard in court.
The Chief Justice of the Republic of Sierra Leone is yet to empanel judges for the petition hearings of the main opposition. Owing to the inaction of the judiciary, the courts were perceived to have colluded with the government to arbitrarily cut down on an APC parliamentary majority.
For Constituency 110 where Madam Davies initially contested and won, an order for a re-run was ordered by the court. In compliance with the court order, a re-run parliamentary election was held few months back, but the election was marred with high scale of violence that forced the country’s elections body, the National Electoral Commission to cancel the election.
During the elections, election materials were vandalised with fingers of accusation pointing at thugs of the ruling SLPP responsible for the violence. The name of a famous SLPP thug commonly known as ARATA was prominent, but he and none of his co-suspects were brought to justice.
The failure of government to investigate the incidents at the voting centre raised large eye-brows of state-sponsored election violence. The election body, NEC which was expected to main a balance was widely accused by APC of colluding with government to deprive APC of victory.
The elections results were cancelled and the cancellation conferred an undue advantage to the government, and the candidate that contested and will contest under the SLPP ticket.
NEC’s move did not go down well with the main opposition APC stalwarts and supporters who believed that their candidate, Kadie Davies won the elections hands down. Calls by the media and civil society organisations for NEC to count the ballots and pronounce a winner was rebuffed by the elections body.
December 12 voting decides who represents Constituency 110 in parliament.
Hopes of a Madam Davies Victory continue to ride high as long as Chief Sam remains at the centre of the campaign trail.