Although few APC (All People’s Congress) politicians may not see a re-run as the right way to go, it has now become clear that a re-run is the only way out.
An APC member fondly known as Pop Shek, the grandson of late President Siaka Stevens does not countenance a re-run, but President Julius Maada Bio steps down and paves the way for a political transition.
He believes that Bio did not win June elections, and many APC supporters widely share this view. However, Although the votes are stolen, President Julius Maada Bio cannot hand over power in that easy or cheap way, but there must be a process.
He owes obligations to his party members with whom he has to consult for a unanimous decision. For Sierra Leone to move from its current messy situation, fresh elections have to be conducted under the supervision of the international community to get the rightful winner.
If it goes as planned, Sierra Leoneans must brace up for the process which may take place in January, next year. A team of Commonwealth and AU mediators will be here next week to broker a peace deal between the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the opposition, APC for a common ground so that the country will be put back on track.
The commonwealth team was here last week on a pre-assessment tour to get themselves abreast with Sierra Leone’s political situation to know which way to go. Armed with facts, it will be easy for them to mediate when the time comes.
When the team arrives in Sierra Leone, President Julius Maada Bio and the opposition leader, Dr Samura Kamara will go back to the negotiation table to chart the way forward with each defending the interest of their political parties.
Several options will be put on the table, and it is up to the opposition to choose one that suits them most since they are on wrong end for now.
Chief Electoral Commissioner (CEC), Mohamed Kenewui Konneh would be present at the mediation.
Konneh is head of ECSL (Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone), a body mandated by law to conduct and supervise all public elections in Sierra Leone.
Konneh would be asked to produce the real results, a demand he would not comply with despite whatever threat or diplomacy applied.
Konneh’s integrity is at an all-time low in the eyes of Sierra Leoneans and the international community owing to what many called “daylight thievery” of June polls.
He declared Bio winner of the elections before votes from other regions were brought in, a move widely seen as fraudulent.
The CEC has rebuffed calls to produce the actual results, and it is not certain that he would produce them now no matter who is on the negotiation table.
If the deal fails, many Sierra Leoneans foresee a power-sharing deal which will be the first option to be advanced by Bio’s de facto government.
President Bio would like to see key APC politicians working in his administration may be as ministers or heads of agencies while he retains the presidency.
For those in the APC, it is a big risk to accept this option as it could not end well.
President Bio is known for lying low when he needs he power, but rides roughshod on those whose back he climbs to get his mission accomplished.
It is a form of military politics which he implemented on former President Ernest Bai Koroma between 2016 and 2017.
Bio played it safe and conducted himself with humility to get Koroma’s admiration, but embarked on a wild wolf chase of former government officials once he became President in April, 2018.
Who imagines that after a power-sharing deal, Bio would allege either subversion or treason against APC ministers and slaughter them later just to shut APC down.
Owing to Bio’s reliability, this option will be completely ruled out; it will not work, and in the failure of the two options, only a re-run can work.
It is the strong hope of every Sierra Leonean that the outcome will be credible once the conduct and supervision of the election is left in the hands of foreign bodies. Large number of voters will also turn up at polling stations if there is no fear of being shot at.
This means that the security of the state should be entrusted to foreign troops so that voters feel safe while voting.
Like it happened in the war period, ECOMOG (ECOWAS Monitoring Group), the military wing of ECOWAS should be given the mandate to secure the voters and the election materials to ensure a serene election environment.
The sub regional bloc, ECOWAS has a history of peace-keeping and enforcement in Sierra Leone and Liberia in the early and mid 1990s, and there is no way they cannot keep peace during the re-run.
It is strongly hoped that the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) will lose the elections once the process is fair as the claim that Bio did not win 2018 election let alone 2023 election is still strong among Sierra Leoneans.
However, SLPP stalwarts would not like to see another election as the outcome will not be in their favour thus subscribing to the notion that there is fear when the election is fair.
The only method at SLPP’s disposal at the moment is to take short-cuts to derail the process.
Key SLPP operatives, agents, spin doctors and propaganda machines have been reactivated to embark on a campaign of disinformation to take the people’s minds away from another election. Such thought should even occur to them.
The main messages spread by SLPP spin doctors hold that Sierra Leone is a sovereign state and that nobody has the mandate to conduct and supervise elections except ECSL.
They also brainwash their supporters into believing that no election has been conducted twice in Sierra Leone, and that June 2023 election is over when it is not yet over.
Elections held in 2007 and 2012 have been referred to as examples to justify Konneh’s action.
Many say the elections were not fair as Dr Christina Thorpe rigged in Koroma’s favour, and their argument hinges on “what goes around, comes around.” But a contrary view holds that no perceived bad deed can be used to justify another bad deed.
The sovereignty of Sierra Leone also comes to the fore when grassroot SLPP members are being led astray. The spin doctors always tell their members that the international community has no power to impose another election in Sierra Leone.
It is indisputable that Sierra Leone is sovereign, but the propaganda machines appear to have no clue that  sovereignty has a limit.
Those who come from another side of the argument submits that membership into international organisations is a limiting factor to a country’s sovereignty no mater its strength or capacity.
Sierra Leone is a member of international organisations such as the UN, the Commonwealth, AU and ECOWAS and the Mano River Union.
As a member of international organisations, Sierra Leone incurs international obligations which she must dispense at all cost.
Good governance and democracy which rests on free and fair elections is an obligation that Sierra Leone must dispense at all cost. If the two political parties vouch for a re-run which will be the only way out, it will the first time Sierra Leone sees another election after a first election with Konneh as the cause.
The election fraud was naked so much that the international community described it as stealing and not rigging.
For many Sierra Leoneans, Bio does not know how to rig elections as he ought to have allowed a run off as projected by National Elections Watch (NEW), an umbrella body of civil society organisations that observe and report on elections in Sierra Leone.
Head of NEW, Marcella Samba Sesay made it clear in a media interview that no candidate met the 55% constitutional threshold to avoid a second ballot.
Marcella’s view was shared by senior SLPP politicians who, according to insider sources, advised President Bio to allow a second round. Former Chief Minister, Jacob Jusu Saffa, Foreign Affairs Minister, Professor David Francis and some members of the advisory team opted for second round, a move which Bio was not pleased with, and laid them off.
Today, the result is here; President Bio is not recognised locally and internationally, and donors have held back their money. Protests and sit-at-homes hallmark Bio’s regime, an act that weakens the economy everyday since no reasonable investor can put their money in a country whose security situation is fragile.
Some government workers have gone for months without pay making the entire situation more precarious. Sierra Leone, at the moment, can be taken out of her quagmire only if President Bio steps aside or goes for a re-run.
If not is not why not, but the struggle continues.