Sierra Leone’s political situation is tense owing to threats of protest against government in respect of the ongoing election investigation carried by the Tripartite Committee.
The people are worried and scared that there would be another wave of violence and thuggery after June 19, this year, a date set aside for the announcement of the findings and recommendations coming from the election probe.
However, some peaceful and law-abiding members of the opposition have condemned such threats as the path to peace is the only way out in Sierra Leone, and not protest or military campaign.
In an address to members and supporters of the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC), the Party’s Deputy Chairman, Osman Foady Yansaneh has completely ruled out the need for a protest since the Tripartite Committee is yet to complete its work. It is hoped that the findings and recommendations would favour the opposition party members who wanted to see SLPP out of power.
He called on all APC members, supporters and sympathisers to remain calm and quiet adding that the party would appropriately respond to national issues.
“No need for chaos as the All People’s Congress is an alternative government, and we are prepared to be responsible to our reaction to national issues,” Ambassador Yansaneh appealed to the party’s supporters.
The party’s second gentleman made the appeal, few days ago, following concerns raised by the party’s grassroot members about the Tripartite Committee, a body that investigates alleged irregularities in the June 24, 2023 polls as well as past elections and proffer recommendations that guarantee elections to be free, fair and credible. According to SLPP politicians, the recommendations by the Tripartite Committee are about electoral reforms and not another election.
The Tripartite Committee is the product of a three-day dialogue between the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) facilitated by the international community (Commonwealth, African Union and the Economic Community Of West African States).
The dialogue aimed at ending a stand off that emanated from the June polls as none of APC’s elected officials (parliamentarians and councils) took their seats in parliament and local councils across the country after the June elections.
The boycott held Sierra Leone to ransom as every aspect of national development was brought to a halt; Commonwealth and ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States) parliaments refused to recognise parliament owing to its configuration.
Once the APC law makers and councillors worked with the government, the political situation would be normalised and international relations re-established, a situation that prompted the setting up of the Tripartite Committee.
The committee was launched in November, 2023 and had things gone as planned, the committee ought to have completed its work in April, last year. However, financial constraints and other challenges stalled the committee’s work.
The election investigation body began its work six months ago and expected to round up next week wetting the appetite of many about what would be the outcome of the process.
As the election probe nears completion, majority of APC supporters have demanded that either the Tripartite Committee recommends a rerun or fresh election or the opposition leader, Dr Samura Kamara declared winner.
Social media platforms are currently saturated with messages that, the opposition leader won the election first round although they are yet to agree on the exact figure. They seem determined to take to the streets if any of these demands are rejected.
Touching on the importance of the Tripartite Committee, Mr Yansaneh said he was quite aware about the importance of such body although others were downplaying its role in the restoration of democracy in Sierra Leone.
President Julius Maada Bio, a week ago, questioned the relevance of the Tripartite Committee to Sierra Leone’s democratic process, raising doubt among many Sierra Leoneans about his commitment to the implementation of the recommendations.
“What is a Tripartite Committee and does it have results,” President Bio asked albeit rhetorically and cynically as it was clear that he called for the negotiation to end the post-election stalemate.
In what appeared that the President was ready to maintain his stance, he also recently told a group of SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) supporters in Bo city in Southern Sierra Leone that there would be no election until 2028 and threatened that “anyone who comes with bullet will be repelled with bullets.” President Bio, few days ago, reiterated that “there will be no more election until 2028.”
The President’s statement is however interpreted to mean a direct challenge thrown to the opposition camp, and is still ready to hold the forte despite the general feeling that he does not win the election.
Reports from election observation missions also indicate that none of the candidates in the June 24 election had a clear majority to avoid a second round.
Senior opposition politicians including Foday Osman Yansaneh also see the President’s statement as one that confirms his earlier stance that he would not hand over power to the APC even if the party won the election.
The statements, according to political commentators, is a disregard for the work of the Tripartite Committee, but Osman Yansaneh promised Sierra Leoneans that they would discard such statement and assure their people that Tripartite committee is a collective agreement to salvage the country from chaos since its outcome is binding on all parties including government.
“The APC, the SLPP-led government and the development partners are part of it, and one cannot underrate such a very important agreement intended to bring peace to this country,” the APC Deputy Chairman cautioned.
At this time, Yansaneh expected the President to come up with concrete measures to protect the economy from implosion and make Sierra Leoneans happy.
Looking back at the history of the 1960s, Yansaneh likened the current political situation to that of 1967 elections which APC won, but then Prime Minister, Albert Margai failed to concede defeat prompting a military intervention.
The APC, he said, stayed out of power for 13 months, but a counter-coup and the findings of the Dove Edwin Commission of Inquiry brought back the party to power. “We don’t want that to happen again here,” Mr Yansaneh recounted while alluding to the 1971 election in which SLPP played their pranks.
APC, Yansaneh also said, won the 1971 election and moved the party to a one-party government since it was the mood in West Africa at that time.
“In most West African countries, it was either there were military regimes or civilian dictatorships,” he said but the system changed in the 1990s as the wind of democracy blew across the continent.
SLPP’s tactics of denying election victory seems to have continued to this date, and there could be a difference with the June 24, 2023 election, and APC politicians wonders what would be SLPP’s reaction to any claim by the Tripartite Committee that the opposition had won the June 24, 2023.
APC is not surprised by the threats made by senior politicians of the ruling party since it is difficult for their party to win elections in this country.
“SLPP has never won majority in any election in this country,” Yansaneh said as he made reference to the 2018 election which, he said, President Bio did not win Since APC had 69 parliamentary seats while then opposition party, SLPP got 49 seats.
The margin in the number of seats conferred a definite political advantage on APC to get the Speaker of parliament on this side, but PAOPA’s bulldozing tactics led to a different outcome. With the use of armed police, SLPP government brutalised APC parliamentarians and dragged them out of the well of parliament to install Dr Abass Bundu Speaker of Parliament.
Yansaneh also delved into the Proportional Representation (PR) also known as the District Block System which he said was used by the SLPP to rig the elections. The PR system, Yansaneh went on, was a calculation of the number of seats APC should have all over the country even before the elections and it was implemented.
The PR model, he said, was not bad for an electoral process, but was good only in the hands of democrats adding that SLPP politicians are not democrats. Yansaneh is not alone in the fight the call for calm as another senior opposition politician and former minister, Kemo Sesay also condemned the proposed demonstration saying that the truth of the general election has been established. “Dr Samura Kamara won the election, and there is no need to protest,” Honourable Kemo Sesay Sums it up.