A remaining number of 52 parliamentarians have been sworn in today to start their normal functions of law making, representation and oversight.
They take up their seats five months after the disputed election results that left the country politically polarised with tension rising. They joined the two members, Honourable Mohamed Bangura and Alfred Thompson who recently took up their seats in defiance of their party’s stance of non-participation of Bio’s governance.
With the swearing in, APC’s number of parliamentarians has swelled to 54 but grassroot members of APC remain worried about an uncertain future.
The grassroot’s fear is hinged on the wide margin in the ratio of seats allotted to the two sides owing to the outcome of last June elections.
The ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party has 82 parliamentarians while APC has 54. The oath-taking is a move many APC supporters and well-wishers oppose calling it “a betrayal of hope.”
The APC, after it had made valiant strides in the name of maintaining and enhancing Sierra Leone’s democratic credentials by staying out of the running of the government cite electoral irregularities that can only be described as state theft.
It happens at a time former minority leader of the fifth Parliament representing Brookfields, Chernoh Maju Bah failed to make it back to the House.
But, the party can take consolation from the fact that its parliamentarians will be in the capable hands of Honourable Abdul Kargbo as head of opposition in the House.
“Look, President Julius Maada Bio did not win June-24 elections, and this must be rang into his head and every SLPP member that denies the truth about how Mr Bio got to the point where he is parading as president of Sierra Leone with his party members failing to openly tell him he did not win. It is sad that the APC is going to Parliament. It is much sadder that the APC has agreed to return to an illegitimate House headed by a Speaker who should know and have been expected to act according to the rule of law and his conscience.It is personalities in high places like the Speaker of Parliament that should tell Bio that he is heading an illegitimate government backed by a Parliament and judiciary of the same making,” said a high-ranking APC member.
The people, the APC member said, are beginning to view APC’s return to parliament as a sign that Dr Samura is clearly in control of things in the party.
If anything, the 24th June, 2023, multitier elections that happened across Sierra Leone was so controversial that the president, his political ideology, PAOPA and his electoral commissioner are the only group of people that would tell him that he did not win the election.
Otherwise here is an election that the only credible local elections watch, NEW, the main opposition , APC, the international elections observers and members of the diplomatic community have all questioned but the incumbent and his party are claiming otherwise.
The controversy was not only surrounding the presidential elections results even the parliamentarian and ward or council elections were all fraught in irregularities.
“In which country would SLPP win four parliamentary seats in Port Loko while the APC failed to win a seat in Kenema? Who would buy such a result as true? Only the SLPP! The APC should not be so desperate to please Mr Bio that they will now be taking part in an illegitimate House of Parliament under a Speaker and president of ill repute. They failed to win the elections fairly, and for this the nation is made to suffer the indignity of our president parading the corridors of power in other countries where the people and government don’t recognise him. It is embarrassing that the names of our president and House of Parliament are being dragged through the mud and mire of lies and theft of the people’s mandate,’ said an SLPP parliamentarian.
Meanwhile, this medium has been reliably informed that the APC is returning to the House not because the party wants to return to the House but because the party wants to prevent president Bio from using cash violence on the elected MPs.
The party, we are informed, does not want Mr Bio to influence their MPs in any way.
“That aside, the APC by returning to the House has subscribed to taking part in an illegitimate government enterprise against the people of Sierra Leone. With the APC going back to the House, the people of Sierra Leone are the biggest losers. The APC and SLPP are always the winners because they only do things in theirs and not the interest of the people they claim to serve,” an APC law maker told this press.
However, three months after the APC decided that it will not take part in government until their demands are met, the party’s MPs and councillors and mayors elect are all returning to government today.
This medium wonders if we will see the APC going to the courts to seek redress.