Just few months after ECSL (Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone) was sued for imposing the Proportional Representation (PR) system, the commission will face the Supreme Court again for registration and other electoral irregularities. Unlike the PR suit which was taken to court only by the APC, this time, the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) has joined the fight against the Chief Electoral Commissioner (CEC), Mohamed Kenewui Konneh.
The two political parties have filed papers to the courts challenging Konneh’s incompetenc to conduct and supervise June-24 elections. PMDC will engage the Supreme Court while the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) will fight Konneh at the high court. The PMDC leader, Charles Francis Margai identifies six legal issues that constitute the object of litigation.
Margai, an established and renowned lawyer, argues that the CEC deprives him of Parliamentarians in eight districts in Sierra Leone. “The Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone has deprived me from nominating eight Parliamentary aspirants in eight districts,” he claimed.
Konneh’s competence to handle the multi-tier elections will also be one of the hottest topics for the litigation at the Supreme Court. According to the erudite lawyer, Konneh’s appointment is illegal since it falls short of procedural correctness. “At the time Mohamed Konneh was appointed, he was a serving government official, and ought to have resigned 12 months prior to the appointment,” Lawyer Margai argued.
Before his appointment, Konneh was Director of Financial Intelligence Unit at Finance Ministry, and did not resign before he took the oath to head ECSL. Failure by President Julius Maada Bio to properly consult leaders political parties in respect of Konneh‘s appointment also adds insult to injury. The main opposition, APC itself was not comfortable with the appointment of Konneh as ECSL boss. Top APC officials argued that the party’s leader was not consulted as provided by law.
When the red flag about Konneh’s unlawful appointment was raised, government’s communication officers were all over the media defending the action. The issue was abandoned to its fate since SLPP was in power at that time. Now is the best time since parliament has been dissolved. Almost invariably, APC will also battle with ECSL at the high court owing to several anomalies which they wanted ECSL to rectify before the elections.
A news brief released few days ago by the APC executive indicates that APC demands nothing other than free and fair elections as the process is now riddled with irregularities. “The leadership of APC wishes to draw the attention of all Sierra Leoneans and the international community to some very serious electoral malpractices that could threaten the successful conduct of a free, fair, transparent, peaceful and credible electoral process in Sierra Leone on 24th June, 2023,” a portion of the press release reads.
The APC identified several issues which show that the scale of the June 24 is tilted in favour of President Julius Maada Bio, the incumbent candidate. According to the APC, the voter registration is botched and disenfranchises a large number of eligible voters. This anomaly occurred in the North-West regions which are perceived as APC strongholds with a lot of ant-SLPP voters. The poor quality of voter registration will also be a contentious issue in the court. No election has taken place in Sierra Leone in which voters could not be identified.
The Black-and-White cards alone is a big room for rigging the elections as no one knows who votes. The nature of the cards, according to APC, renders them unfit for purpose. Mismatches of personal details were also detected, names omitted, photos missing and other related inadequacies also hallmark the voter registration exercise. As if these malpractices were not enough, ECSL also recently released a voter register that is incomplete, fake and in breach of section 13 of the Public Elections Act, 2022.
The list, APC submitted, does not conform to international best practice, and a comparison of the 2018 voter’s list confirms the errors. The concocted voter register was later withdrawn leaving many Sierra Leoneans doubtful of Konneh. ECSL will also be roped in for failing to complete the voter registration process six months to the elections, an act that contravenes section 18 of the Public Elections Act, 2022. The short period to the election makes it difficult for APC to effectively plan and campaign for the elections.
ECSL’s intent to circumvent district-level clarification of results in the office of the District Elections Manager also forms part of the legal issues, the court will look into. The district-level clarification is very much important since the PR model will be applied to the electoral process. In a related development, APC will also draw the court’s attention to widespread attacks of its members and supporters by security forces.
“The systematic and cruelly machinated attacks on and brutalisation of APC supporters even on scheduled campaign days of the APC threaten the peace and security of our members and the entire electoral process,” the press release further reads. The unleashing the unleashing of security forces against their members also violates relevant portions of the law on elections. ECSL has 21 days to file papers in opposition to APC and PMDC’s claims.
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