The main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) is again at loggerheads with the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) over the appointment of Mohamed Konneh as Chief Electoral Commissioner (CEC) on 20th July, this year.
The appointment puts Konneh at the helm of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), a body that conducts all public elections and referenda throughout Sierra Leone.
Now that parliament has endorsed the appointment, Konneh will conduct the 2022 and 2023 local council and general elections.
Questions and doubts have emanated from Konneh’s appointment especially the manner in which it was carried out.
The doubts indicate that Konneh is unfit for appointment on the basis that the official has never worked in an electoral facility.
The question the public has been posing is why all other officials with electoral background are not appointed.
However, the criticism from political parties seems to be the strongest and the loudest.
They have taken their concerns out of the country as the attention of the international community has been drawn to the issue.
By virtue of the controversies, Konneh’s appointment is seemingly the most controversial of all appointments in recent times.
APC says the appointment is illegal while SLPP says it is not.
The former cites fundamental provisions of the country’s constitution to justify their stance while the latter debunks.
An APC press release of 16th July, 2020 indicates that they were not consulted as a party thereby arguing that the appointment of Konneh runs contrary to section 32 (3) of the constitution of Sierra Leone.
The section makes it obligatory for members of the electoral commission to be appointed by the President after consultation with leaders of registered political parties and subject to the approval of parliament.
Down the line in subsection-4, a public officer is barred from appointment either as a commissioner or CEC.
However, a public officer can be qualified for appointment if he resigns from office. But, APC says Mohamed Konneh is the Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit and has not resigned from such post when he took up appointment as head of NEC.
The perceived non-resignation of Mohamed Konneh warrants the APC to invoke section 76(1) of same.
The constitutional provision disqualifies any person for election to parliament if he has not resigned after twelve months prior to the date on which he seeks to be elected to parliament.
The two provisions definitely underline APC’s main contention which pinpoints that as long as Konneh is not qualified to be elected as a member of parliament, he is also not qualified to be appointed NEC Chairman.
In all these opposing statements from the main opposition, State House Press Secretary, Keketoma Sandi provides a defence.
On the issue of consultation, Sandi maintains that APC was consulted when President Bio contacted former President, Ernest Bai Koroma on 13th July, this year, in respect of the appointment.
He made it clear that the former President directed the current President to furnish APC secretariat with Konneh’s Curriculum Vitae. The advice was complied with and done in good faith.
On 16th July, the leadership of the country’s umbrella body of political parties, All Political Parties Association (APPA) was consulted on the issue of appointment as a way of meeting the constitutional directive.
Since APPA has been consulted on the appointment, the argument here is all political parties have been consulted.
In response to the claim of disqualification for appointment under sections 32(4) and 76(1), Sandi has always argued that since Konneh is not going for an election contest, he is fit for the job.
He argues that the appointment has nothing to do with an election.
In what looks like a further justification of Konneh’s appointment, the State House Press Secretary made reference to the appointment of N’fa Alie Conteh as Regional Electoral Commissioner, North when he was Director of Operations at NEC.
The argument is that N’fa Alie simultaneously held the two positions since he did not resign from the first one.
The SLPP’s responses to the APC’s submissions indicate that a conflict of an unpredictable nature is building up.
The conflict would surely land the two parties in court for determination. But the question is: Will the APC succeed in the pending legal conflict?
The question is very much relevant to the current issue considering the nature of the country’s Judiciary.
It can be incontrovertibly expressed that the judiciary is always weak in the face of government interest.
It is thus prudent for the APC to stay aloof from legal action, and allow Konneh to execute the NEC functions.
The country’s recent political history has shown that actions could be counter-productive and dreams could turn into nightmares.
In 2007, former CEC, Dr Christiana Thorpe showed a red card to a former incumbent SLPP government that appointed her.
Almost invariably, in 2018, N’fa Alie, former CEC also sounded the deathnell of a government that appointed him to the hot seat.
Now that Mohamed Konneh has been brought into the seat as CEC by government to conduct the multi-tier elections, the question is: Will history repeat?