We have five months more for 2022 to end. The question of when do we hold local council elections is a question expected to be asked by the main opposition APC (All People’s Congress). This question must be directed to NEC (National Electoral Commission), Parliament and PPRC (Political Parties Registration Commission).
Answers to the question must be immediately provided so that every political party knows its status. According to the Local Government Act, 2004, Local Council elections take place every four years. Since local council elections were held in 2018, we expect other local government elections to take place in 2022 for the country to have new mayors, chairmen and councillors or retain old ones.
These local government officials are the vehicles for service delivery to communities throughout the country. They bring central government to the door steps of the people. The councils were almost forgotten in the country for decades, owing to uncontrollable levels of corruption.
But, after the war, Sierra Leone saw the need for their resuscitation. Since Sierra Leone is a democratic state, local council officials derive their powers, authority and legitimacy through elections. Local government elections, since their reintroduction, have been peacefully conducted throughout Sierra Leone.
Even in 2018, Sierra Leone elections were multi-tier when local council elections were conducted alongside presidential and parliamentary elections.
However, despite the importance Sierra Leone attaches to local council elections, Sierra Leone, under PAOPA is seemingly not heading for local council elections. The signs are already clear and the evidence speaks loudly.
The previous year, SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) government issued a notice in which it seeks to postpone the 2022 and 2023 elections to 2024. But, its decision was stoutly resisted by the diplomatic community notably European Union. In a counter press release, the European Union responded with negativity to government.
The press release noted that all elections be it local, parliamentary and presidential must be held on their fixed dates: 2022 and 2023. Response from the diplomatic community apparently did not go down well with PAOPA.
Their unhappiness was visible as it is a government known for using force to have its way in every national affair. After the plan for postponement was aborted, SLPP government also tried to create conflicts within government circles when it moved the motion for the depoliticisation of local councils.
If the move is strictly gone by, party politics would be removed out of local councils. This means, councils will have neither APC (All People’s Congress) nor SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) councillors, but just councillors. This move was translated into a bill that was presented to parliamentarians for enactment quite recently.
The bill met great resistance from opposition parliamentarians who saw no need to depoliticise local councils. The bill is still in parliament, and nothing has been said about it. By robust protests from opposition parties, SLPP Government was mute although the bill was not withdrawn.
In another move, a curfew has been declared throughout the country in the name of COVID-19 even when people are not adhering to COVID-19 rules. Observers in the media and the public have come to realise that COVID-19 rules and politicking are incompatible bedfellows.
One does not expect active politics in the face of tight COVID-19 restrictions. Although the President, according to law, has no justification to proclaim new measures without renewing the expired state of emergency, the curfew is still implemented.
Despite criticisms from several quarters, the rules remain in force. As if the enforcement of rules is not enough, former President Ernest Bai Koroma is currently being run after for what government refers to as corruption allegations.
A large number of Sierra Leoneans hold the view that that harassment and intimidation of the former President is a complete distraction. It is a way of government taking the people’s minds off from the pending elections and the country’s hardship.
It is now clear that the former President is used as an object of distraction from SLPP’s problems. SLPP Government resorts to the political gimmicks after it failed to incite disunity within the main opposition, APC. APC is currently emerging as a formidable force after it has settled most of its court matters.
Those familiar with national history would not hesitate to subscribe to the notion that the results of local council elections are used to predict the outcome of national elections. It happened in 1967 when APC defeated SLPP in local council elections and defeated it in the subsequent general elections.
In 2007, APC defeated SLPP in the local council elections and also defeated it in the general elections. All those defeats took place in even numbers for local council elections and odd numbers for the general elections.
2022 is even and 2023 is odd; SLPP must be jittery and panic stricken. On several occasions, it has been constantly argued that SLPP would continue to count its days in power the day APC elects a flag-bearer.