Responding to questions posed to him recently by a local media institution, the deputy minister of internal affairs, who also doubles as the national publicity secretary of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Lahai Lawrence Leema has let the cat out of the bag by predicting that the forthcoming general elections scheduled for 2023 may not take place then but would likely happen in 2024.
The SLPP mouthpiece made this remark during a public political debate with the chairman of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) party, Dr Dennis Bright. Leema’s prediction came in the wake of a national call by opposition politicians for President Julius Maada Bio to announce the date for the forthcoming general elections expected to take place in mid-2023.
Speaking on the latest arrest and detention of the acting national publicity secretary of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC), Lahai Lawrence Leema said ‘if elections are to be held in 2023 or 2024, whatever the case may be, the SLPP is sure of winning the elections with a high margin of vote’ against their opposition counterparts because of the good works they have done in the past four years of governance. However, that statement was debunked by the NGC chairman Dr Dennis Bright who responded by calling such a prediction unlikely ‘as the people of this country are all set to vote in 2023’.
Leema continued that the latest statements attributed to the APC mouthpiece is a threat to national security, adding that they as a ruling government will not sit by and allow the state to be vandalised by other politicians. Leema also threatened to arrest any opposition politician ‘who will attempt to mobilise their members to cause mayhem in the state’, adding that they on the other hand are sending a strong message to APC’s Sidi Yayah Tunis and his team that the SLPP will speak with the force of authority ‘if anyone ventures to mobilise their members illegally’.
The SLPP mouthpiece then warned the NGC leader not to support the APC ‘in their level three act of mobilising members’ or else he will be deemed as Sidi Yayah Tunis’s accomplice. He added that the ruling party has all the capacity and capability to protect themselves and the nation ‘in the event where the mobilisation drive is successful’.
In his response to Leema’s prediction, the NGC chairman Dr Dennis Bright said there was nothing wrong with the acting APC publicity secretary’s statements, adding that Tunis used the words to ‘legally mobilise’ their members, ‘which is not against the state or the constitution’. He also advised the SLPP mouthpiece to stop intimidating and harassing opposition politicians, which is against their right to freedom of expression.
Dr Bright noted that the ruling SLPP government is one of the worst democratically elected governments in the history of the nation, adding that all the good projects the SLPP promised in the past elections are fake and substandard. Dr Bright called on the president to make a timely announcement of the next election date as per the constitutional.