Although December, 2026 deadline has been set for the full implementation of the 80 tripartite recommendations, it still remains unclear whether it will be met.
Debates and discussions on the recommendations are yet to be taken into full gear at the well of parliament as waves of internal wrangling wreck the two political parties.
The deadline became widely trumpeted among the public following a visit by the international moral guarantors who brokered a peace deal between the two political parties, the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the opposition, All People’s Congress (APC).
Opposition parliamentarians recently walked out of parliament over what they say a snail-pace implementation of the tripartite recommendations for electoral reform.
If fully implemented, Sierra Leone will see a new era of electoral credibility, but to an apparent disadvantage of the ruling party. Rigging of elections in all its forms will end, and the true winner enjoys the fruits of his labour.
The controversial appointment of Edmond Alpha, Chief Electoral Commissioner was the last straw that broke the Camel’s back.
It made APC politicians think that the SLPP parliamentarians were in no mood to implement the recommendations as laid down by the Tripartite Committee under the Agreement for National Unity (ANU).
Consequently, APC had no alternative but to boycott parliament and local councils across the country, a move reminiscent of the aftermath of the June, 2023 election.
The recent boycott prompted a come-back of the moral guarantors into Sierra Leone led by former Gambian Vice President.
Members of the two political parties (SLPP and APC) were engaged by diplomats resulting into their return to parliament and councils of the APC parliamentarians and councillors.
The two political parties were however encouraged to speedily table the recommendations before parliament for debate and ratification with December 31st, 2026 being final deadline being a redline for the two sides.
By the end of December, 2026, the two political parties are expected to have implemented all 80 recommendations to realise and operationalise the ANU.
It remains unclear what will come next after the 80 recommendations may have been implemented.
The collective views of the people hold that the international community will come in to implement five divergent recommendations after the 80 has been carried out.
Suffice it to say heads that would roll with such a strategy as it bolsters the ‘No Transition, No Election’ movement within the APC. The other group holds a different view stating that Sierra Leone will go to the polls after the implementation of the 80 convergent recommendations.
This view according to an investigation conducted by this press is much more popular within APC’s top cream who have always wanted the party to move on for 2028 election deadline or no deadline.
For opposition leaders, talk of an ‘Electoral Justice’ is farcical as they always see Samura Kamara as a stranger not a politician in the APC. As internal wrangling lingers in the APC over the Tripartite Agreement, the ruling party also continues their questioning of the Agreement.
From the outset, members of the ruling party do not see the ANU as the surest way to settle an election dispute other than going to court although they participate in the agreement. The Constitution of Sierra Leone provides that the Supreme Court is the only place to challenge a presidential election, and that the game is over since the opposition snubbed the court.
As doubt over the implementation gains pace, a senior SLPP politician recently tagged the Tripartite as a gentleman’s agreement meaning it is one without a binding effect.
Once it is not binding, the politician insinuates that the agreement is null and void with SLPP being on the advantage side since they are in governance.
Others within SLPP also hold on to the notion that the Tripartite body has no legal right to look into a disputed election apart from the court.
In one of the SLPP meetings, the party leader even questioned about whether the Tripartite Committee has election results.
Recently, the ruling party, in its press release, has taken a position opposing the Tripartite Agreement saying government never represented SLPP.
The party’s scribe, Umar Paran Tarawally was blunt to say that SLPP could not be compelled into accepting the terms of the Tripartite.
Umar Paran’s statement recently generated several much discussions and debates within the public with questions about what he actually meant.
The argument holds that there is no difference between a party in power and government as most of the major policy decisions are initiated within the party before brought outside for public consumption.
It is also argued that even before forming a government, a political party draws up a manifesto which contains the framework for state governance through effective implementation of policies, programmes and activities.
It is further argued that the Chief Minister and other officials that took part in the three-day peace talks at Bintumani are senior SLPP members that protect the interest of government and their party.
At the end of the three days, the debate went on, the document itself was launched by the President who was the leader of SLPP.
Such counter-argument, according to political analysts, is a call for SLPP members and government officials to treat the Tripartite with the utmost seriousness saying “circumlocution or circumvention will not help the process.”
But, a veteran opposition politician has argued that any agreement entered into by the government is valid and binding as long as it is tabled and ratified by parliament.
To support his argument, the age-old politician cites one of the provisions of the Sierra Leone Constitution, 1991 which empowers parliament to ratify any agreement gone into by government for it to have a binding effect.
Once ratified by the legislators, he said, the agreement would be implemented like any order emanating from any of the court in Sierra Leone.
He drew the attention of SLPP politicians to the words in the October, 2023 which indicates that any recommendation shall be “actionable” and “implementable.”
Arguing further, the politician also reminded SLPP and APC politicians about the 1999 Lome Peace Accord signed between Sierra Leone Government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) led by Foday Sankoh.
In that agreement, he went on, a post almost equal to that of a Vice President was created and reserved for the rebel leader, a move that ran contrary to Sierra Leone’s Constitution.
The agreement was accepted and ratified by parliament because it ended Sierra Leone’s decade-long war and argued that he saw nothing different with the Tripartite.
Whether the deadline will be met is a wait-and-see affair.