Owing to undue delays, the Electoral Justice Movement (EJM) has reportedly intensified its appeals to the United Nations for speedy implementation of the Tripartite Committee’s recommendations for peace and stability to reign in Sierra Leone.
The EJM is a splinter group within the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC), fighting to get back the party’s elections victory of the June 24, 2023.
The appeal for the swift implementation of the Tripartite Committee’s recommendations comes following calls for peace and national cohesion that have been made by members of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) after eight years of misrule.
However, the EJM members are reportedly not inclined to accepting such calls for peace, maintaining that true peace and reconciliation will occur only after the Tripartite Committee’s recommendations are fully implemented.
In his statement, EJM spokesperson, Alhaji Mohamed Warrisay sends a loud and clear message to the international community particularly the United Nations.
“…I must make one thing categorically clear: there can be no peace and unity without the full implementation of the Tripartite Committee’s report,” Warrisay maintained while emphasising the quick intervention of the United Nations to restore democratic governance in Sierra Leone.
EJM spokesperson further stressed: “Anyone who believes that they can govern Sierra Leone outside the people’s mandate must think again. We the people of Sierra Leone will not yield an inch.”
Led by the presidential candidate of the June, 2023, Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara, EJM members want to see that the true winner of the said polls is announced, and those who play significant role in undermining democracy and good governance by rigging the elections are brought to justice.
The EJM members are said to have exercised patience and self-restraint throughout, hoping that the international community especially the UN, the United States, the United Kingdom and other world powers would listen to the cry of the people.
Delaying the implementation of the recommendations, has raised suspicion of collusion between the government and the international community with hope that everything will be settled naturally and peacefully.
The snail-pace process of the Tripartite Committee began on 27th November, 2023, the day the election probe was set to commence.
Complaints came from senior APC politicians that none of the government officials attended the meeting to discuss on the strategy of the election investigation.
The day in question was preceded by a coup which occurred on 26th November, 2023, and government’s attention shifted to the arrest and prosecution of the coupists from the tripartite investigation.
The election probe was neglected to an extent that the United States former Ambassador to Sierra Leone urged government not to focus mainly on the coup investigation while downplaying the elections probe.
The then US Ambassador made the appeal as he regarded the work of the Tripartite Committee was central to the country’s peace, security and stability.
His view is also shared by the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Criminal Justice, Beth Van Schaack who observed that the only way to maintain peace in Sierra Leone was to hold accountable those who rigged the elections and committed several atrocities and human rights crimes against the people of Sierra Leone.
These appeals and observations seemed to have yielded no positive dividend for the said elections as the Sierra Leone government raised the issue of lack of funds to expedite the said matter.
It took about a year after the formation of the Tripartite Committee before work commenced following the donation of US$1.5m by the United States to the investigators.
The election investigation was completed after six months and 80 plus recommendations were made for government’s implementation.
The recommendations, according to Section 40(4) of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991, require it to be tabled before lawmakers for approval ahead of its implementation.
No such action was taken not until the moral guarantors advised government on the need for speedy implementation of aid recommendations following a one-month boycott of parliament by opposition parliamentarians.
APC lawmakers returned to parliament only after a meeting with the moral guarantors, but debates or discussions on the Tripartite Committee’s recommendations are yet to begin as government was concentrating mainly on the controversial constitutional amendment bill.
It also remains unclear whether the Tripartite Committee’s recommendations will be fully implemented by government as no one is expected shoot himself in the leg.
SLPP government knows for sure that the full implementation of the Tripartite Committee’s recommendations will see it out of power and will take years in opposition. But, owing to local pressure and perhaps aid cut and strained relationship with the international community, President Bio has reportedly promised to give up power to the opposition, APC.
His promise of a power transfer was made during an address to lawmakers over a week ago, but the people doubted it in light of past remarks made by Bio and cronies over the Tripartite Committee’s work.
President Bio, on several occasions, has questioned the real function of the Tripartite Committee in Sierra Leone’s electoral process.
“Does the Tripartite Committee have results,” he asked albeit cynically and rhetorically as a crowd of jubilant SLPP members and supporters cheered him. The cynical and rhetorical question implies that it is only the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) that has the legal mandate to declare a winner of a presidential election and not a Tripartite Committee.
As far as he knows, ECSL, the body charged with the responsibility of conducting and supervising all public elections in Sierra Leone has declared him winner of the June, 2023 election.
At all cost and against all odds, he remains the winner although the elections, according to reports by local and international election observation missions, was a sham.
However, Bio is also quite aware that the Supreme Court is the only institution where an election dispute can be challenged, and its verdict final and not subject to appeal within and outside Sierra Leone.
APC too knows the fact that the Supreme Court is the appropriate institution to preside on a presidential election dispute, but there was fear of not getting justice in the courtroom necessitated the establishment of a Tripartite Committee as a possible alternative.
The international community also supported the establishment of Tripartite Committee which it saw as the only hope for a peaceful and stable Sierra Leone.
The Tripartite Committee will however become the hope of Sierra Leone only after the full and unreserved implementation of its recommendations which, analysts say, is being treated with levity by the Bio regime.
President Bio has insistently assured his people that as far as he knows, the Tripartite Committee does not have election results, and that he will not hand over power to the APC come what may. Bio’s stance has been supported by SLPP’s Secretary-General, Umar Paran Tarawally when he stated that his party was not part of the Tripartite “SLPP was not represented by the Tripartite, and we will not respect decision taken by the Tripartite Committee,” Paran Tarawally declared his party’s position towards the tripartite recommendations.
Former SLPP Chairman, Alex Prince Harding had recently made it clear that the decision to choose Sierra Leone’s next President rests with Bio and not the Tripartite Committee.
Such defiant comments are enough to trigger an immediate intervention by the international community to restore democracy in Sierra Leone.
But, the feet dragging and snail-pace movement towards the implementation of the tripartite recommendations have generated mixed feelings among the public.
It makes the people doubt the real role of the international community in the restoration of democracy in Sierra Leone.