Maintaining his stance recently announced in Bo city, Southern region, President Julius Maada Bio has also reiterated that there will be no more election until 2028 as he questioned the usefulness the election investigation body.
Bio said “June 24 election is over and that Sierra Leoneans should look up to 2028 for another election.”
President Bio who still maintains a grip on power, however apologised to those who have been harassed and intimidated while trying to exercise their franchise in the election period.
According to reports by local and international election observation missions, dozens of Sierra Leoneans were indiscriminately arrested and detained based on false or concocted allegations.
Many Sierra Leoneans especially in the North-West regions spent days in police and prison custody before they saw the light of day just to keep them off from the electoral process, a situation that resulted into voter apathy in the opposition strongholds.
The mission is to ensure victory for the PAOPA government which indeed came but will not last since an election probe is underway.
Reliable sources have intimated this press that the findings and recommendations of the Tripartite Committee would favour the people of Sierra Leone, and it is now time for the President to show remorse and apologise to the victims, but appears in no mood to hold another election until 2028 when he shall have completed his second and final term.
He also made it clear that the Tripartite Committee has no mandate to announce a rerun of the election but to investigate, present findings and proffer recommendations to government for permanent electoral reforms that will guarantee elections to be free and fair.
“Can the Tripartite Committee announce election results?” President Bio asked albeit rhetorically.
As a nationalist and democrat, Julius Maada Bio has made it plain and clear that he would not go for a third term as he is now trying to take an exit. Bio’s declaration of no rerun of the June election is the latest in a row that laid to rest speculations among APC supporters that there would be fresh election in months.
About two weeks ago, President Bio made similar pronouncement while addressing a group of ecstatic SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) supporters in Bo city, one of the strongholds of the ruling party.
Confident of an SLPP victory, President Bio minced no word when he stated that “election is over and there will be no rerun or fresh election.”
He also warned opposition politicians who called themselves political big guns to stop misinforming the people about a rerun of the election as such statement could threaten the peace and stability of the state.
Looking back at recent past, President Bio told his SLPP supporters that when he lost the 2012 general election, he conceded defeat and restrained his men from taking to the streets, and everyone kept the peace.
To give peace a chance, Bio said, he left Sierra Leone the election for Britain where he stayed for years before coming back in 2017 to fight for the presidency which he won.
Threatening a military strike on anyone who attempts to remove him with the use of the barrel of the gun, President Bio threatened to use bullets for bullets to repel any would-be invader. “Those who come with bullets will be repelled with bullets,” President Bio assured jubilant crowds in Bo city. The supporters were thrilled for words as they knew quite well that Bio is a talk-and-do President.
But, others are not convinced that the PAOPA leader will stand by his words when one looks at the political drama that unfolded in 1996 when Bio was a military Head of State.
While on the driving seat, he assured the army and the people of Sierra Leone that he would not hand over power to civilian authorities until the soldiers’ welfare was properly looked into and addressed. Bio even floated the Peace- Before-election movement as delay tactics to convince his supporters that he meant business.
The army were however taken by surprise when Bio gave up power within a twinkle of an eye leaving the khaki boys in miserable condition, and there could be no difference this time as many believe that Bio will hand over power owing to local and international pressure.
At the moment, it will be difficult for Bio to stand against the Tripartite Committee, a body whose recommendations are binding on the parties involved: the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC).
Many SLPP supporters support the notion that the Tripartite Committee is not a court and that its findings could be challenged before a judicial body.
The election investigation body is likened to the defunct commission of inquiry set up in January, 2019 to look into alleged misappropriation of public funds and other forms of maladministration.
But, their findings and recommendations were appealed at the Appeals court as every investigative body enjoys the status of a high court.
Owing to lack of public trust and confidence, the Tripartite Committee replaced the Supreme Court, the highest judicial institution which would have looked into alleged irregularities of the June election.
The communiqué that resulted into the formation of the Tripartite Committee was signed by APC and SLPP officials under the auspices of the international community (Commonwealth, African Union and Economic Community Of West African States) to ensure peace and national cohesion.
Once the peace document is inked, President Bio and his men are under obligation to respect the resolutions of the communiqué, and one of them is to investigate alleged irregularities and come up with findings.
Since it came into existence, the Tripartite Committee was being dodged by SLPP politicians as if Bio was forced to sign the communiqué, a document from which the Tripartite Committee emanated.
The work of the Tripartite Committee ought to have begun on November 27, 2023 after it was launched by President Bio but the absence of government officials derailed the process.
It also took several months before the terms-of- reference document was launched at the New Brookfields hotel in Freetown.
The launching came only after the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Greenfield offered $1.5m to the committee for work to go on smoothly.
A senior opposition politician, name withheld for fear of reprisal, said President Bio took part in the three-day dialogue owing to an erroneous calculation of the political situation.
Bio had hoped that once the communiqué is signed, everything was over and his government would be recognised and financed by the international community so that he could avoid the much-trumpeted one-term phenomenon.
However, President Bio became disillusioned and disappointed with the entire process when the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, United Nations, France, Germany, Ireland announced that they would not work with the Bio regime until the electoral irregularities were investigated to ascertain who the actual winner is.
Currently, President Bio and his PAOPA cabal have smelled the rat owing to the latest revelations at the Tripartite Committee.
He is sure to lose if the electoral irregularities are thoroughly investigated and results re-counted and re-announced.
Bio’s biggest headache at the moment is how to mobilise support among his tribesmen in the South-East regions to ensure that he completes his second term.