Electoral Justice Campaigners are still holding the belief that Presidential Candidate of the All People’s Congress (APC) party in the 2023 elections, Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara will be President of the Republic of Sierra Leone and that it is just a matter of time for that conviction to become a reality.
The Campaigners believe that in spite of the sitting President Julius Maada Bio still holding the fort as President of the Republic, there is this 103% assurance that Dr. Samura Kamara will eventually be called upon to serve by the turn of the five-year “mischievously” awarded to the incumbent by the “rogue” Independent National Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone.
This sentiment was echoed by one of the stern believers, the Diaspora (USA) Coordinator for the Electoral Justice Campaign, Ben Turay, resident in Maryland in the United States of America and a native of Bonthe District.
According to Mr. Turay, the National Unity Agreement (NUA) nor the Tripartite Committee were conclusive on the analysis of Result Reconciliation Forms (RRFs) submitted for examination and certification of the 2023 Presidential results provided by both the incumbent Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the All People’s Congress (APC) party which according to him clearly showed a 67.15% win for Dr. Samura Kamara but was surreptitiously overturned by the Chief Electoral Commissioner and National Returning Officer, Mohamed Kenewui Konneh in favour of the SLPP Candidate, Julius Maada Bio. “Konneh could not confirm the authenticity of the source of his declaration of Maada Bio in any way convincing to the APC party nor to the International Community,” Mr. Turay averred, pointing out that that “gross electoral misdemeanor” puts a thick cloud over the results and the authority of the man he declared as President.
“It is on account of this and many other factors that we in the Electoral Justice Campaign believe that Dr. Samura Kamara is President of Sierra Leone in transition,” Mr. Turay affirmed, highlighting that Dr. Samura Kamara did not ever accept the election result since he did not sign up to the election certificate, recalling that following the 2018 elections, in spite of its controversies, Dr. Samura Kamara signed up the election certificate at the American Embassy in full view of the nation. “He didn’t sign the 2023 certificate because he never accepted the results,” Mr. Turay stated, adding: “The transition process is ongoing behind the scene. Sooner rather than later, Sierra Leone and the world will witness a definitive change in the country’s leadership with Dr. Samura Kamara being confirmed as President of Sierra Leone,” affirmed Ben Turay.
He maintains that the Campaign’s relationship with the APC party is frosty given that in spite of the public acceptance by the party’s Executive that the 2023 Presidential election was rigged and “stolen” from the APC party, the Executive has not manifested a clear interest in the pursuance of a rigorous claim to what rightly belonged to them, but instead, the National Secretariat in particular is pursuing a “hide and seek” attitude with the matter, leaving it entirely in the hands of Dr. Samura Kamara and his Electoral Justice Campaign Team, even when Maada Bio accepts the fact that the 2023 elections had flaws.
Ben Turay insists that the lackluster attitude of the APC National Executive with regards what they strongly believe was “a daylight election thievery” by the SLPP and they are sitting complacently with it on their own ground of letting it go and disregarding the very elements of electoral injustice under the 2023 elections circumstances: “is a betrayal of the trust of the country’s electorates and in particular, the trust of the APC grassroots supporters whose votes appear not to be of interest and concern to them,” the Diaspora Coordinator for the Electoral Campaign affirmed.
He went on to accuse the APC Secretariat of “selling out” the trust of the party’s grassroots supporters for their own selfish agendas and political capitulation to the ruling SLPP.
When challenged on the decision of Dr. Samura Kamara to reverse his 72-hours ultimatum to Konneh and the Election Commission to disaggregate the voters’ list ahead of the polls on 23rd March, 2023 as a misjudgment, Ben Turay maintained that it wasn’t a misjudgment, rather, the decision of Dr. Samura Kamara “was in the interest of the peace and safety of the people of Sierra Leone” given what he referred to as “the blatant predilection of Maada Bio and his SLPP to shot and kill whosoever they saw at the time as standing in their way for a second term.”
Ben Turay went on: “Dr. Samura Kamara believed that election battles cannot be fought by spilling blood alone. There are several avenues open for fighting against electoral injustice which Dr. Samura is pursuing and which efforts the APC National Executive is demonstratively undermining,” asserting that the fight for electoral justice is “not yet over, until it is over” as against the APC National Executive’s position about the 2023 elections that, “it is done and dusted.”
On the decision of the APC party to remove Dr. Samura Kamara as Chief Negotiator at the National Unity Agreement (NUA), Mr. Turay states that the decision is “lame-ducked” and went on to condemn the entire ongoing National Unity Agreement that it is “no longer significant” because according to him, what should be focused on now is the just implementation of the NUA and the recommendations thereof. “What is there to negotiate?” He questioned, pointing out that as far as their campaign is concerned, issues bordering on the corrupt nature of the 2023 elections and the consequent results are still not over. He stated that as far as the Electoral Justice Campaign Movement is concerned, the so-called decision by the APC party to replace Dr. Samura Kamara at the NUA is “insignificant” and that it connotes that the party’s Executive don’t know what they are doing.
On the allegation that Dr. Samura sold out to Maada Bio, Ben Turay disclosed that in the aftermath of the 2023 elections and the massive internal and international condemnations the result faced, the National Executive wanted to meet with Maada Bio under the instruction of former President Ernest Bai Koroma, but that Bio was insisting on meeting with Dr. Kamara which ultimately happened and which Dr. Kamara rightly reported to the National Executive. “It was because they were denied at the first instance to meet with Bio that when Dr. Samura Kamara met with him and reported to them, that came out with that unsubstantiated allegation that he had sold out to the Maada Bio,” Turay maintained, pointing out that it was that meeting that culminated in the open call for investigation into the 2023 election processes that led to the National Unity Agreement and the Tripartite Committee. He maintained further that as Chief Negotiator, Dr. Samura Kamara was certainly communicating with the APC party at all levels and developments at the NUA, but maintained that because the Executive had already clinched its fists against Dr. Samura Kamara, whatever he was doing to the party and for the party were not recognized and appreciated since, according to him, “they already had their whims and caprices cut out against the man who stands as the face of the party against electoral injustice, but instead they have decided to abandon him in the cold.”
Ben Turay went on to appeal to the APC grassroots to uphold their trust and belief in the campaign for electoral justice and the leadership thereof provided by Dr. Samura Kamara.
“The party is saying to you that the acts of malfeasance around the 2023 elections “are done and dusted”; don’t listen to them-the fight for electoral justice is very active and we are reaching the closing line. It is not over until we say it is over. This is the fundamental difference between us and the National Executive, We are fighting to protect your votes and they have already dismissed your votes. Dr. Samura Kamara is your President in-waiting; it is just a matter of time as the transition process is at its fullest gear now,” the Diaspora Coordinator for the Electoral Justice Campaign, Ben Turay concluded.