In response to President Bio’s speech calling for justice as Sierra Leone’s rotational Presidency of the United Nations Security Council kicks off, voters, concerned Sierra Leoneans and supporters of the All Peoples Congress (APC) are calling on the President to ensure electoral justice for the voters of Sierra Leone, the APC Presidential Candidate in the 2023 presidential election, protesting civilians and imprisoned civilians killed by state security officers since 2018, the 10 APC MPs and the Auditors General removed by unconstitutional means, and the 24 soldiers that were executed in 1998 after a court martial hearing without being allowed to appeal their convictions over claims of trying to overthrow the government of then President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.
In his speech to the UN Security Council, President Bio demanded that the Council rectifies what he called “an historical injustice” against Africa for the Continent not being represented in the Security Council that decides on global peace and security issues that also include Africa.
Concerned citizens and others have called the President’s speech “hypocritical” in light of the injustices that have been perpetrated against the people of Sierra Leone under his and the previous SLPP regime headed by the late President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah. The execution of the 24 court martialed soldiers in 1998 remains widely considered as a gross miscarriage of justice as they were not granted their full rights and access to justice.
When President Bio won his first elections in 2018 he did so without a majority in the House of Parliament, which was a first for a President-elect in Sierra Leone. In a move that has been called unconstitutional, the President was able to manipulate the judiciary and caused the removal of 10 elected Members of Parliament of the main opposition APC using the courts and deriding the constitutional provision for a bye-election. He is also accused of imposing the Speaker of the Fifth Parliament after the main opposition Members of Parliament were removed from the Well by State security officers. Up to present, the judiciary has refused to schedule the case of the 10 MPs that were removed by unconstitutionally, albeit violently from Parliament.
Since he took over as President of Sierra Leone in 2018, many protesting civilians have also been shot and killed by state security officers, including imprisoned civilians killed by Presidential Guards at the Pademba Road prison. Up to present, the civilians that were shot and killed at Lunsar, Makeni, Koidu, Mile 98, Tonko Limba, on 10 August, 2022, and 11 September, 2023 are yet to receive justice in a court of law as their deaths have been swept under the carpet with those who shot and killed them still believed to be in the employ of the government of Sierra Leone. The President admitted state responsibility for their killings when he was trying to convince citizens to come out and celebrate the nation’s Independence Day by saying that his government will no longer kill citizens.
For failing to seek permission from the President to request hotel receipts from South Africa, Lebanon and The Gambia during an audit of the Office of the President, the Auditor General and her Deputy were summarily suspended before a tribunal was established to ascertain their guilt or unprofessional conduct and breach of confidentiality as claimed. Despite repeated attempts by their lawyers for the judiciary to decide on the constitutionality of the makeup and terms of reference of the tribunal, the tribunal proceeded with their investigation which report has not been made public or seen by the auditors and their lawyers. The fate of the auditors now rests with the SLPP dominated House of Parliament who are expected to vote on the removal of the Auditor General and the Board of Audit Service Sierra Leone to decide on the removal of the Deputy Auditor General.
In their response to President Bio’s speech at the UN Security Council calling for justice for Africa’s inclusion in the Security Council, citizens are demanding for electoral justice for the flagbearer of APC for the 24 June, 2023, presidential election that is widely believed to have been usurped by President Bio. After the Electoral Commissioner and Chief Returning Officer announced the incumbent President Bio as the winner, the result was instantly rejected by the US, UK, EU, ECOWAS, African Union, the international elections observers including the Carter Centre and the country’s own National Elections Watch (NEW) as statistically inconsistent with the reality. While the APC has released RRFs from 70 per cent of the polling stations nationwide signed by polling agents that showed the challenger in a commanding 57 per cent lead, neither the ruling party nor the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone has released their own RRFs or the disaggregated voting data per polling station for verification. The Electoral Commissioner has refused repeated calls, even from the Tripartite Committee that was established to among other electoral issues, to look into such an announced victory, to release the demanded results which, is against the country’s electoral laws. Still the President insists on his electoral win despite the on-going tripartite process.
In light of the on-going tripartite process, particularly the 80 recommendations to resolve the nation’s electoral processes to reflect current national realities, the voters of Sierra Leone are demanding that the President takes swift action to ensure that Sierra Leone’s democracy reflects the will of the people as expressed through their votes. The President’s insistence on his presidential victory, the voters say undermines the legitimacy and effectiveness of his government. They demanded that the small and incremental change of the electoral processes and in addressing the electoral injustice should give way to a giant leap forward by the granting of access to the disaggregated voting data to resolve the impasse once and for all.
The aggrieved voters who said they voted for a change in government are calling on the president to show commitment to spearhead efforts for meaningful reform of the country’s electoral processes by having the electoral commission do justice to the voters by immediately releasing the raw voting data per polling station. Instead of parading as the winner of the June 2023 presidential elections that the US, UK, Germany, Ireland and others who are part of the UN Security Council say he couldn’t have won, the voters are calling on president Bio to seize the opportunity, if he is a true reformer, to correct the electoral wrongs committed by the electoral commission that declared him winner of the election that is yet to be declared free, fair or credible by local and international elections observers. The president is yet to be inaugurated by his party and the state a year after his disputed win.
The voters that spoke to Nightwatch say they have been marginalised, their votes disrespected, neither their will nor their mandate for him to be president. They say their economic and social reality under president Bio has been the worse and they voted last year to change that but were denied electoral justice with the announced result by the chief electoral commissioner.
For all of these injustices, the concerned Sierra Leoneans say peace and security are products of justice, and a lack of justice precipitates lack of peace and creates an insecure state, adding that injustice was the main reason for the 1992, 1996 and 2023 coup d’états.
Instead of calling on the UN Security Council to address injustice for Africa, President Bio must guaranty that justice is assured of in Sierra Leone. What is good for the goose is good for gander.