The integrity and reputation of the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), the European Union (EU), Ireland, Germany, France, National Election Watch (NEW), the Commonwealth, and the Carter Centre including their dedication and commitment to the upholding of the rule of law and ensuring democratic good governance has come under the spotlight.
It is safe to say that your reputations and integrity are at stake in the eyes of Sierra Leoneans and the rest of the world as it pertains to electoral justice and the tenets of democracy.
As the countries, regional, continental and global blocs and elections observer groups that, at the announcement of the presidential result of the June 24, 2023, elections, drew the attention of the All Peoples Congress (APC) and indeed the people of Sierra Leone and the rest of the world to the statistical and mathematical inconsistencies that made it impossible for the incumbent to have won on the first ballot, it is now up to you, who are collectively part of the international community, to now ensure that after we have been given access to the report and recommendations of the Tripartite Committee as compiled by Dr Samura Kamara of the APC and chief minister Dr David Sengeh of the SLPP ruling party government that addressed our past and extant issues that continue to bog our electoral processes, that you the international community and our moral guarantors address the justice aspect of the tripartite process with the UN rep to the committee’s report that will finally address all the contentious issues.
More than anything your report forms the third part of the tripartite committee without which the committee of three stands on two and highly shaky and untenable legs.
Your attention must be drawn to the fact that in any electoral contest it is sacrosanct that all votes are counted and from among all the candidates who the actual winner is based on those votes. Therefore while we have through the Tripartite Committee report addressed how to put an end to the kinds of electoral issues that will lead contending parties in an election process crying foul based on the 80 recommendations of the committee’s, the people of Sierra Leone are calling on the members of the international community as listed above to ensure that the judge led phase of the Tripartite Committee including the learned Australian Judge and the UN Representative deliver their report to address the issue of electoral justice.
As stated by Dr Samura Matthew Wilson Kamara, ‘In any group endeavour, differences in opinion, approach, and results are inevitable. This diversity is reflected in the Tripartite Committee’s Report, which comprises two divergent perspectives: one submitted by the APC representatives and the other by the SLPP representatives.’
As the witnesses and umpires in the tripartite process, it is incumbent on the international community to ensure that the Tripartite Committee process is made complete. In any dispute with a witness, conciliator, go-between, peacemaker or umpire, there comes time for the umpire to pass his or her judgement or pass a verdict based on all the issues as stated and the application of the rule and procedures of the law.
It is based on the International Community Report on the Tripartite Committee Report that we will get the real contentious issues of who actually won the June 24, 2023 presidential election addressed. It is based on this report from the United Nation’s system of things that we will finally get justice as to who voted, where they voted, who didn’t get to vote, and whose right to vote and right to life were threatened and denied, and who acts of violence were perpetrated against that denied many citizens of this country access to their democratic franchise.
The attention of the international community that act as our moral guarantors is drawn to the just ended general elections in the United Kingdom that saw the challenger defeating the incumbent in a landslide and also the upcoming presidential election in the United States: Would the people and the rule of law in both countries allow for what we know happened in Sierra Leone before, during and after the June 24, 2023 presidential election to happen in your democracies? Would you be called champions of democracy as you are globally held to be?
Therefore for the sake of your reputations, your integrity and for the sake of how this and future generations will judge you and in keeping with Resolution 3 of Bintumani Accords of 16-18 October 2023, the United Nations representative to the Tripartite Committee must compile and submit her report for the people of Sierra Leone to get electoral justice.
We have to know just as it just happened in the UK elections, who voted, how the votes were tallied and who the actual winner of the June 24, 2023 presidential election in Sierra Leone.
The UN representative’s report will determine all the main points of diversion and address issues of the rigging of the election before, during and after the vote and all those that made it impossible for other citizens either by acts of violence, threats or manoeuvres not to be able to cast their votes on June 24, 2023, for which they will have to meet their day of justice in a court of law.
As a truly democratic society we must know and made assured that every vote cast on June 24, 2023 was accurately and transparently counted, that the people’s will is respected, and as per the other aspects of the Agreement for National Unity that political prisoners are released, that politically motivated court cases are removed, that our exiled brothers and sisters are safely returned, that there is also an end to political harassment and intimidation and that room is created for on-going bipartisan dialogue.
The people of Sierra Leone are calling on the international community to ensure that electoral justice is assured of in Sierra Leone and that impunity and the hijacking of democracy by the appropriating or stealing of the people’s mandate is made to bow to the rule of law.
The tripartite process is a true gem and a testament to Dr Samura Kamara’s vision of a truly democratic Sierra Leone. After its hopes and aspirations had been shrouded in darkness, finally held under the light the end result of the committee process reflects all the colours and brilliance of the heavens: we have had the report from the two main contenders to address the issues that can keep them out of contention at the end of every electoral cycle; now we await the third part of the tripod to submit its own report, which addresses the justice aspect.
The international community must be reminded that no one can guaranty peace where there is no justice. Lonta!