Close to four years, the dust must have settled in respect of the impasse between the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the opposition, All People’s Congress (APC).
The implementation of the recommendations should have been completed by now so that everyone takes back control of their lives. But, as it stands, nothing seems to be moving on even when the December 31, 2026 deadline remains in force.
Chief Minister, the lead negotiator’s statements, most times, on media platforms are no way helping the situation, opposition politicians say.
He usually blames the opposition party for being less cooperative in the work of the Tripartite Committee.
Sengeh and some senior SLPP officials sometimes question the international community for interfering with the domestic affairs of a sovereign state contrary to the principles of the Vienna convention of 1961.
Pointing a finger of blame on the opposition party and the international community portrays government officials as those not ready to abide by the terms of the Agreement for National Unity particularly the implementation of the Tripartite recommendations.
As such, the Spokesman for the ‘Electoral Justice’ movement has hit back on Chief Minister in response to statements made on media platforms.
The Electoral Justice movement is a splinter group within the APC fighting hard to retrieve, the party’s stolen victory of June, 2023 election.
The movement is led by the 2023 Presidential candidate, Samura Kamara who has sworn not to relent until the people’s victory is brought back.
Its Spokesman, Mohamed Warrisay who has stayed in the diaspora since the inception of the Electoral Justice movement has taken on the Chief Minister for failing to implement the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee.
The Tripartite Committee which came into being after a three-day peace talks at the Bintumani hotel in Freetown, was tasked to look into alleged irregularities of the June, 2023 election and proffer recommendations.
The committee has issued its first set of recommendations bordering on electoral reforms, but implementation remains a big challenge for the government.
The Chief Minster, the lead negotiator in the Agreement for National Unity, has been accused of treating the implementation of the tripartite recommendations with a pinch of salt thus annoying the opposition political party particularly the Electoral Justice Fighters.
Via media platforms, Warrisay directly accused the Chief Minister of defiance against the people (the international community) who has made him what he is today.
“Is this open defiance against the people who educated you or is this simply your way of diverting attention from progressive discourse such as the implementation of the Tripartite Committee’s investigation report?” Warrisay Twitted, adding that the Chief Minister’s behaviour will not engender trust among development partners.
The Electoral Justice Spokesman further reminded the Chief Minister that Sierra Leone won the trust of the development partners through democracy, good governance, the rule of law, accountability and cooperation with all diplomatic levels.
Warrisay also drew the Chief Minister’s attention to government’s failings, which he said, were damaging Sierra Leone’s image abroad with the West and the US withholding aid from Sierra Leone.
“You cannot sack the Auditor-General and her deputy, close the door of accountability on our people, harbour cartel leaders, turn our country into a transshipment hub for narcotics, refuse to extradite a fugitive to one of our partners and brazenly steal an election, then expect not to be held accountable,” the Electoral Justice Spokesman further punches Sengeh.
Most political analysts and commentators agree with Warrisay on the issue of governance failings highlighted by APC Spokesman especially alleged harbouring of the drug lord and stealing of the June, 2023 election.
Credible sources state that Sierra Leonean authorities, on several occasions, have been requested by the Dutch government about the extradition of Jos Leijdekkers, a convicted drug trafficker to serve his jail term, but ended in futility.
Other sources say government has denied hosting a drug lord although recent arrest and investigation of drug peddlers in foreign countries is slowly linking Sierra Leone to the Cocaine trade.
Recent Forensic analysis on the drug conducted by US investigators linked the drug to Sierra Leone, rendering government’s denial of sheltering a drug lord farcical. Sierra Leone’s alleged involvement in drug manufacture and trafficking has a bearing on the election rigging.
Reports by local and international election observers show that the polls were marred with irregularities in such a way that the votes did not reflect the will of the voters.
It was further claimed that records held by ECSL (Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone) were replete with “mathematical inaccuracy” and “statistical inconsistency” making the election a sham.
The only option is to investigate the rigging by way of setting up the Tripartite Committee with parties agreeing to comply with whatever recommendation proffered by the investigative body.
The October, 2023 Communique, the ground document that the sets the election probe in motion, states the recommendations shall be “actionable” and “implementable.”
Government is however accused of downplaying the work of the Tripartite although international pressure is mounting on them.
The Chief Minister who appears to have shown less effort towards the implementation of the Tripartite recommendations has always placed the opposition party in the bad light.
He recently tagged the APC executive as being unprogressive without providing much details. The Chief Minister was also on record to have accused APC of eating their cake and wanting it back.
“One cannot eat his cake and have it again,” the statement is Chief Minister’s most favourite saying in most of his public appearances either on radio or tv. The statement, analysts say, could bear several interpretations but the main one hinges on the executive exchanging the people’s votes for money.
Anything once sold could not be asked for, and his statement gained strength when senior SLPP politicians started questioning the legal mandate of the Tripartite Committee to either produce or announce election results in Sierra Leone.
For politicians of the ruling party, it is only ECSL which is mandated by law to announce the election results and that aggrieved parties should seek redress at the Supreme Court and not otherwise.
It is argued that since APC failed to go the court to challenge the result, there is no other path to tread on, seeing the tripartite probe as just a cool off moment.
Other SLPP politicians also insinuated that APC will remain in permanent opposition as the party has endorsed an SLPP third term by accepting bribes. Situation is worsened when senior executive officials joined the band wagon of undermining the country’s democracy for which many will render account.
On a number of radio and tv debates and discussions, APC Spokesman, Sidi Yayah Tunis openly declared that “the election is done and dusted,” and the country should move on.
The comments came at the peak of a struggle to take back the “stolen mandate” from the ruling party.
Even the party’s former Leader, ex-President Ernest Koroma is accused of derailing the chances of APC coming to power. Speaking from exile in Nigeria, Ernest Koroma made it clear that “the election is over and that the people should look forward to 2028.”
He blamed Samura Kamara for sitting at a negotiation table with the incumbent, President Julius Maada Bio not long after 2023 election even without consultation with the party’s senior members.
Drawing from his experience in election observation missions in several African countries, Koroma says the game is over once the opposition accepts to sit with the incumbent at a peace table. He makes Sierra Leoneans believe that taking the opposition leader to the peace table after a rigged election is the tactics of the international community to end post-election stalemates and change regimes in Africa.
With no uncertain terms, the support of opposition politicians to those of the ruling party made the fight for Electoral Justice an uphill task.