Dr. Samura Kamara, the embattled APC 2023 elections flagbearer has declared that in Sierra Leone, until there is a clear cut electoral justice that respects the will of majority of Sierra Leoneans in the June 2023 presidential elections and that will respected by declaring the actual winner of that election, democracy in the country remains an illusion and also elusive.
He maintains that until the people and nation of Sierra Leone including members of the international community honestly come out and address the political and all other issues that have come to define the fight for electoral justice then, “there is no democracy in Sierra Leone”.
This is the contention of the flagbearer of the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC), Dr Samura Kamara, when he went further that democracy is being undermined in Sierra Leone.
It must be recalled that since the head of the electoral commission for Sierra Leone and chief returning officer declared president Julius Maada Bio as the winner of the 24 June 2023 presidential election, no one except the party government and the ECSL has openly endorsed the president’s victory with foreign governments and international elections observers using various phrases to describe the flawed nature of the declaration and presented voting data.
Since 27 June 2023 the society has gone through upheavals, politically, socially, and economically, that point to the lack of electoral justice. Dr. Samura Kamara narrated that since the end of hostilities in Sierra Leone we have seen smooth transitions that were not interrupted by the incumbent. The nation saw its first post-war transition in 2002 when the military passed power over to the SLPP, who passed power over to the APC in 2007. In 2012 the people voted to keep the APC president in power but voted against the APC in 2018 for the SLPP candidate.
But after the people voted for change in 2023 by coming out in large numbers to state their displeasure with the incumbent and the SLPP government, Dr. Samura asked why is their voice being denied, why are they not being accorded the right to decide who they want to lead them?
The APC flagbearer said that the people voted to replace president Bio to bring an end to their five years of suffering but that at the end of the day none of their votes were counted although an election result was announced. Dr. Samura asked why Sierra Leone cannot be like Senegal, Liberia or Botswana, adding that this is his, the APC’s, and the resolve of the people of Sierra Leone.
In an effort to settle the impasse Dr. Samura Kamara said the APC even accepted the idea of a dialogue with a focus on Resolution 3 aimed at exposing the elephant in the room: a demand for the elections data as the presented result was and still is flawed and lacking transparency and accountability. Although he had wanted for there to be an investigation he was prevailed upon and so accepted for an examination of the result. However, going on two years after the elections, neither the flagbearer nor the party nor the people and our international development partners has seen the demanded raw voting data.
Making a point, a source in the ruling party government say that there will be no hope of the people getting access to the voting record because, “The head of the ECSL is being aided and abetted by the ruling party who is misleading him into believing that no action would come against him presently or in the future.”
Despite the long wait through the boycott of the illegitimate government, through the dialogue phase and the communiqué that produced the Tripartite Committee, we are still at an impasse with the incumbent doing nothing to ensure that he and his party qualify how he won his second term mandate.
The recommendations made by the committee have not seen the light of day as arguments over issues that should have been resolved holding sway and dominating the process, with accusations, counteraccusations and denials in the offing. The recommendations of the tripartite committee process that is meant to change the dynamics of our electioneering processes have all hit a snag as the government lacks the parliamentary and judiciary integrity to see that they take effect, as approving such would put them to pay and leave them vulnerable to legal prosecution for manipulating an electoral victory that is against the will of people from whom sovereignty is derived.
This has added to the issue being unresolved and the almost business-as-usual atmosphere that the government is operating under, where all of our moral guarantors have backed down and now doing business with a leader they know was not elected by his people. This is the real elephant in the room. The sooner we address this the sooner the country will get to enjoy a political normalcy it has been robbed of by the incumbent and the party government who are bent on consolidating power until they can ensure another “presidential victory” for their candidate.
If the people of Sierra Leone don’t challenge their Members of Parliament and of the Judiciary to have the integrity and dignity to uphold the rule of law by their strict adherence to the constitutional protocols then we will always be in the position where our democratic credentials will always be under question with the legitimacy of our Head of State and supposed Fountain of Honour in serious disrepute. We cannot allow for our leader to be the laughing stock among world leaders on the global arena. Respect for our leader by other leaders comes from the respect the leader is accorded by freely, fairly, and credibly winning the people’s mandate via their votes. A leader that hijacks the people’s votes through undemocratic and even illegal means is not worthy of his title. Such a nation cannot be called a democracy. Lonta!