A big dark cloud hangs over proposed 2028 elections although APC (All People’s Congress) executive are preparing for a National Delegates’ Conference where a new flagbearer would be elected.
Other executive posts also will be filled during the conference, but the “electoral justice” campaign launched by Samura Kamara may defeat such purpose. Kamara who is still the presidential candidate in the controversial June 24, 2023 elections has discarded the results and call for accountability.
He appears not to have a rest until the election is investigated and the real winner established and those who involved in election malpractice roped in.
The question many Sierra Leoneans pose hinges on who will succeed in the struggle of either elections or electoral justice.
Credible news agencies have reported that 2026 will be a year for the APC National Delegates Conference, an actualization of Chairman Minkailu Mansaray’s promise few years ago when he boldly said in an APC meeting that the delegates’ conference would take place in 2026 as well as the general elections.
The APC Chairman made the statement at the height of the election probe conducted by the Election Investigation Committee popularly known as the Tripartite which he looked low upon.
The statement means that the APC executive cares about only elections and not the probe of the elections which might bring APC to power in the not-too-distant future.
For most of them, the June election is over, and the party must settle for 2028 polls although there is faint hope that APC would make it.
The notion that the June polls is over has been recently sealed by former President Ernest Bai Koroma in his 56-minute audio which came out almost a month ago.
“Election is over,” the former President declared while in exile in Nigeria adding that the Presidential candidate, Samura Kamara had to give up the fight.
He made it clear that as long as Kamara had sat at the negotiation table with President Bio, the game was over seeing as a great blunder.
Koroma who relies on his international election monitoring experience in several African countries said bring the opposition candidate and the incumbent to the negotiation table is the surest way to end post-election wrangling.
“The main tactic in solving election dispute is to bring the opposition candidate to the negotiation table, and once that is done, the game is over,” the former President informed the people of Sierra Leone.
The position taken by the APC that election was over first came from the party’s spokesperson, Sidi Yayah Tunis who said “the election is done and dusted,” a statement he made during a media interview, and has filtered through grassroots Sierra Leoneans and APC’s top ranks. It is now the party’s mantra.
The notion is being strengthened every now and then as key APC politicians have been criss-crossing the country for flag-bearer elections.
A new face in APC’s camp, Dr. Ibrahim Bangura has just surfaced and moving crowds as he runs for the party’s flag.
Bangura who is believed to be another presidential candidate handpicked by ex-President Koroma has almost reached every nook and cranny of Sierra Leone seeking the people’s endorsement of his intention to go in for the presidency.
Next in the queue is Mohamed Ormodu Kamara aka Money Jagaban who is also fighting for the party’s flag. He hails from the Eastern region but he carries a typical Northern name.
Like Dr. Bangura, Ormodu Kamara has campaigned in several communities for his presidential ambition, and the elections to hold in 2028.
Kamara is a political heavyweight within the APC camp in light of the important role he played while the party stayed out of governance for three months amid post-election stalemate.
He used to pay stipends to parliamentarians, mayors, chairmen and councilors in compensation for salaries lost during the boycott.
His magnanimity to the grassroots in difficult moments also could not go unnoticed, and it is clear he could turn situation in his favour. Another age-old politician, Dr. Richard Conteh is out and about in the field seriously moving crowds for the party’s flag.
Few days ago, he was in the Eastern town of Kailahun popularizing his political ideology to the people who he canvassed for votes in the upcoming National Delegates’ Conference.
He is sure that there would be a convention at all cost and that Samura Kamara should go home and rest.
Apart from the three, there are reports that Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah is also vigorously campaigning for the flag-bearer post in the party.
Bah is Samura Kamara’s running mate in the 2023 elections, and people doubt why he fails to stand with Samura Kamara in respect of the “electoral justice” campaign.
As the executive flag-bearers brace up for 2028, Samura Kamara, the current presidential candidate shows no readiness for another elections until the true winner is established and the perpetrators of election rigging brought to justice as seen in his “electoral justice” campaign. His move is being supported by few like-minded APC politicians. Although many see the Deputy Chairman, Ambassador Foday Osman Yansaneh as an antagonist to the “electoral justice” campaign, he once proved himself upright when he said “we cannot move to 2028 if we don’t get it in 2023.” Samura is also being supported by men in the street who believe that he is the actual winner of the June elections.
His “electoral justice” campaign is gaining ground at every tick of the clock as groups of APC grassroots have been dispatched to various parts in the country to canvass the grassroots to fight for their 2023 votes.
With such messages, majority of APC’s rank and file seem to have thrown their weight behind Samura Kamara, a man who they consider as leading with clean hands.
Crowds follow him wherever he goes even if unannounced while the other executive members and flag-bearer hopefuls struggle to get a handful of followers.
It is popularly argued that Samura’s crowd can overpower that of all the flag-bearers put together, a factor that further cast dark shadows about 2028 elections.
Samura Kamara also heavily banks on the support of the international community who have withheld funds from government and financed the election probe which has been completed and recommendations proffered.
Eighty-four (84) recommendations have come out bordering on electoral reforms and accountability, and government is under pressure to implement them.
International moral guarantors have, on several occasions, met with Sierra Leonean authorities to assess that the state of implementation of Tripartite Recommendations.
If implemented to the letter, there is hope that Samura would make it and fans and flag-bearers of 2028 thrown into oblivion.