The leadership of the three political parties that participated in the bye-elections in Constituency 110, Goderich and its surrounding communities, have reacted to the cancellation of the results by the National Electoral Commission on Sunday 25th August, 2019.
A release from the Chief Electoral Commissioner and National Returning Officer, Nfa Alie Conteh, says they are cancelling the results because of the violence that took place at Sarah Modern Preparatory School that housed over 10 polling stations with a voter population of over two thousand.
This they say has materially affected the outcome of the elections in which the two leading candidates were separated by only 174 votes.
The NEC Chairman says the election results are therefore regrettably cancelled and the date for the holding of another re-run will be announced in due course.
Kandeh Yumkella, leader of the National Grand Coalition tweeting from a Parliamentary retreat in Bo, southern Sierra Leone was reacting to an earlier post by the candidate for the Unity Party, Femi Claudius Cole, who had stated that the developments at Constituency 110 was worrisome for the 2023 elections.
Madam Cole had disclosed in her social media post that the voting process was going on smoothly at Constituency 110 until when thugs of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party came into the Sarah Modern Preparatory polling center with un-registered vehicles, destroyed and scattered all polling materials in front of the heavily deployed MACPI.
Mr.Yumkella noted in his tweet that the situation at Constituency 110 is a diabolical attempt by NEC to kill democracy, and that it has been nurtured and built in our country through the blood and sweat of many especially those who lost their lives during the decade-long civil war.
After the Tonko Limba debacle a few months ago, the National Electoral Commission has again demonstrated further contempt for the Sierra Leonean people.
‘’Today was broad-day light robbery,’’ according to Mr. Yumkella.
The NGC Leader also reiterated his usual stance that institutional corruption is worse than just stealing money.
He questioned about who is fooling who, NEC or those who see evil and pretend not to?
The NGC leader blasted our moral guarantors who he said ‘’choose expediency and pseudo stability to kick the can down the road for the next set of diplomats who will be here in 2023’’.
He reminded NEC that they nullified countless stations to arrive at their final election results in 2018.
He accused NEC of knowing who were parading with thugs and ended up disrupting the elections.
The main opposition All People’s Congress Party in a press release after the cancellation of the results disclosed the party’s decision not to accept the cancellation against the backdrop that it lacked legality.
The APC’s press release also claimed to have won the elections and cited the price their membership had paid to be able to win such elections.
The release called on the International Community to openly condemn the thuggery demonstrated by the SLPP at the said elections, and the complacency of the Sierra Leone Police and their military counterparts at such visible thuggery by ‘Arata’.
They implored on the international community to bring to bear on NEC to reverse their decision to cancel the elections.
The Sierra Leone People’s Party and the Sierra Leone Police are yet to make pronouncement on the cancellation of the elections and the heaps of allegations of using thugs to disrupt the elections and terrorize opposition party voters that came out to vote.
As we go to press, we are also equally not heard from the many civil society organizations including the National Elections Watch on the conduct of the polls which many say were marred with thuggery and other electoral inconsistencies.
There were also no arrests by the police of thugs accused of destroying electoral materials.