Sierra Leone’s peace is under threat as citizens prepare for another demonstrations almost six months after August 10, 2022 protests. Reports reaching this press confirmed that South-Easterners would stage a demonstration against the diplomatic community for what they called meddling with the country’s politics.
The protests, according to sources, would start in the South-East region, strongholds of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).
Those in the South-East regions have always wanted key members of the diplomatic community to leave Sierra Leone ahead June 24 elections. The EU Ambassador and the UK High Commissioner, Manuel Muller and Lisa Chesney respectively are those that South-Easterners wanted to see their backs out of Sierra Leone.
President Julius Maada Bio has been constantly called upon to declare a persona non grata for the two officials, but he is yet to respond to the calls. It remains unclear whether President Bio would ask the two officials to leave. As the South and East prepares for protests, North-West regions which are strongholds of the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) too have threatened to take to the streets, reliable sources say.
They would protest in support of the presence of diplomatic officials in Sierra Leone so that credible elections would be conducted. North-West regions are desirous of a free, fair and credible elections in June 24, this year, and that objective can be achieved only when diplomatic officials are on the ground.
South-Easterners’ threats to protest came days after Honourable Emerson Lamina of Coalition For Change (CFC) party and the former Minister of Social Welfare, Dr Sylvia Blyden repeatedly attacked the EU Ambassador and the UK High Commissioner for alleged political interference.
The CFC parliamentarian, few days ago, appealed to the Speaker of Parliament to invite the EU Ambassador on grounds political meddling. Honourable Lamina however could not tell exactly what constitutes an interference into the country’s political affairs. He however cited the diplomats’ deployment in Tonkolili district during parliamentary bye-elections, and utterances considered as a disfavour to the ruling party.
The officials’ deployment in Tonkolili appears to have been completely misunderstood by the CFC parliamentarian. Although the deployment was to ensure that peace and transparency prevail in the voting process, he saw it as meddling. The statement uttered by Ambassador Muller that more people registered in the North-West than in the South-East was a factual claim.
Figures released by ECSL (Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone) support Muller’s statement. The figures indicate that close to two million people registered in the North-West while slightly above one million people showed up for registration in the South-East.
During the registration period, a number of South-Eastern politicians streamed into their strongholds appealing to their people to register. The appeals were repealed since the people were fed up with the politics of lies and deception.
A South-Eastern parliamentarian, Honourable Momoh Bockarie called on his people to register citing the multi-functional use of the voter ID card, but
people were still unappeased.
Chiefs, mayors and chairmen of local councils were used to slam bans on commercial and farming activities so that the people could have their names on the voters’ list. It did not yield the required dividend since few made it to the registration centres.
For three days, South-East was in lockdown to compel people to register, and that was the last resort government officials could embark on to ensure compliance, but the people have made up their minds, but the result was discouraging. Almost invariably, Dr Sylvia Blyden also subjected the UK High Commissioner to pressure for what she called political interference.
She reminded the UK representative of the Vienna Convention which prohibits interference by diplomats to interfere with’ member states’ internal affairs. But, it also remains unclear whether any portion of the Vienna Convention has been flouted.
However the commitment by the international community to free and fair elections creates a big headache for the ruling party. Ambassador Muller, on several conferences, has reiterated EU’s commitment to credible elections.
At a press conference at the UN Country Lodge, the UN Ambassador made it clear that government would make sad mistake if they hope to rig elections. The question of why SLPP is staging protests against free and fair election remains.