Under tight pressure From the United States, Government of Sierra Leone is set to investigate the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Kenewui Konneh for the June-24 election fraud. 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.
The declaration of Julius Maada Bio winner of the June polls left more questions than answers with the international community insisting on an investigation.
The cross-party committee will handle the investigation with a particular focus on the use of funds donated to the election body, printing of voter ID cards, counting and tabulation among others. US Senate Foreign Relations Committee repeats its stance for investigation of Konneh and others so that a deterrent could be set for other future election authorities.
The Foreign Relations Committee, few days ago, twitted that “I encourage all sides to fulfil their commitments and hold accountable those for significant manipulation of the June-24 general election results.”
It is not yet clear where the election chief would appear but the committee will start the investigation and end elsewhere. The investigation is part of several resolutions in a communique signed between the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC).
If it goes as planned, the committee will be in full swing within two weeks, and the investigation is scheduled to last within six months. President Bio who had no hope of winning genuine elections after five years of misrule got 56.17 per cent of the votes leaving 43.83 per cent for the opposition candidate, Dr Samura Kamara.
The election results, according to observers, are counterfeit, but the election chief has turned down calls to release genuine data, and hardened himself against local and international pressure.
Election observation missions condemned Sierra Leone’s electoral process as one that “lacked transparency” and riddled with violence, thuggery and shoot outs.
Amid loud public outcry of rigging, Konneh presented a certificate of victory to President Julius Maada Bio at State House while the election result and the disaggregated data still remain closely-guarded secrets.
No amount of pressure could compel the Chief Electoral Commissioner to produce the election results when he was invited by the dialogue committee chaired by the Commonwealth peace brokers. Before this time, the election chief made it clear that the disaggregated data contain personal details of the voters and should not fall in public hands.
For him, he owes obligation to no one about the data saying that he enjoys absolute legal protection. He also argued that the 1991 constitution, the country’s highest law, conferred on him total independence which should be questioned by no one.
But, the Chief Electoral Commissioner, legal analysts say, misconstrue the constitution which provides that “in the exercise of his duties, the Chief Electoral Commissioner shall not be subject to the control or direction of any person or authority.”
This provision, lawyers argue, does not however mean that Mohamed Konneh should not be questioned when he goes off track as the provision is not peculiar only to his office.
Similar constitutional provisions protect other officials in similar capacity implying that Konneh had no right to withhold the results of an electoral process that has attracted huge funding from the international community.
Of all funders, US and EU stood out as they struggled to ensure a free and fair electoral process, but the purpose seem to have been defeated by the election chief and co-commissioners. ECSL’s resistance to free and fair election did not come in a day; it started long ago when the election chief publicly declared that “Sierra Leone is a sovereign state.”
EU, Commonwealth, Carter Centre Foundation and G7+ observers did not accept the election results owing to the opacity that surrounded the counting, tabulation and tallying processes. Local observer groups also discredited the election process.
National Elections Watch (NEW), an umbrella body of civil society organisations that observe and report on elections in Sierra Leone also condemned the electoral outcome.
Relying on the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT), NEW Chief said no candidate met the 55% threshold needed to avoid a run off. Marcella Samba Sesay made the the during a radio interview immediately after the June-24 elections.
The PRVT method was first used in several African countries in the 1970s and 80s before it was introduced to Sierra Leone. It has been used in several elections including the 2018 polls through which Bio became President.
Owing to her insistence on the truth of the elections, NEW Chief became an object of harassment and intimidation, a move that forced her out of Sierra Leone and currently seeks asylum in the United Kingdom.
Her return to Sierra Leone remains in big doubt as President Bio still holds the forte. The election result was not rigged in a vacuum as state security forces were enlisted by government to do their bidding. Intermittent shoot outs in opposition strongholds were not infrequent, and such incidents were captured by EU Election Observation Mission.
A recent EU report accused government of using armed brutality against opposition members and supporters singling out the frequent shooting at the APC office in Freetown.
The opposition candidate, Dr Samura Kamara and senior APC officials including Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki Sawyer came under attack at their party office while briefing the press on the conduct of the elections. The officials were narrowly assassinated and supporters intimidated.
Bio seemed to have succeeded in his crackdown against opposition politicians as it took months without going to the party office for fear of another armed attacks. Although the shoot-out was highly criticised, no one was held accountable thus raising suspicion of a state-sponsored violence.
The United States also does not lose sight of the election violence that was committed government before, during and after elections and the American Senate similarly called on government to investigate the elections.
“I encourage all to hold accountable those for the election-related violence and intimidation,” an official of the US Foreign relations Committee twitted. Konneh will be the first Chief Electoral Commissioner to face an investigation after an electoral process.
James Jonah, Dr Christina Thorpe and Mohamed Nfa Alie Koroma conducted and supervised elections in difficult times but came out clean. The outcome, despite few challenges, was accepted by those who took part in the electoral processes. None was sued and no investigation panel set up to look into their actions.
But, Konneh is not in the mould of past election chiefs as he faces strong criticisms from the people of Sierra Leone and the international community who are pressing for an investigation.