By Amin Kef Sesay
The main opposition All People’s Congress Party is concerned that following the 2018 General Elections which ushered in the SLPP Government of President Bio; the APC, our international partners and the public, have witnessed an unprecedented and systematic decline in the country’s democratic and peace building gains.
This, APC says, has happened owing to a completely disorderly transition and a deliberately skewed and emotional transition report which laid the basis for ethnic hegemony and a dangerous political purge of the public and civil service.
The fallout from that disorderly transition they say include improperly constituted Commissions of Inquiry (COIs) and an array of constitutional violations; state sanctioned electoral manipulations and violence, brazen miscarriage of justice related to Headquarters & Western Region political cases, and police/military brutality against unarmed and peaceful protesters and prisoners.
More than three years after the President Bio – led SLPP Government came to power; APC say they have repeatedly and loudly raised their concerns over and protested against the agonizing and dramatic decline in Sierra Leone’s democratic, peace and human rights credentials. Sadly, the President Bio – led SLPP Government has consistently treated and dismissed their legitimate concerns and protestations with reckless indifference.
APC are therefore very heartened that at this very crucial moment when Sierra Leone is gearing up for the next general elections; our position on the worrying state of affairs has been verified and validated by many of our civil society organizations and one of our international partners – the European Union (EU). APC thus maintain that the issues so aptly captured in the recent EU Elections Follow – Up Report are definitely not new nor is the President Bio – led Government’s reaction to these revealing facts.
To recall, APC say they specifically raised concern and protested against the Government Transition Team (GTT) Report, the way the COIs were constituted and harrowing spate of intimidation, unlawful arrests and detention of protesters and of stalwarts, members and supporters of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party.
APC highlighted that this painful and accelerated reversal was occasioned by the President Julius Maada Bio – led SLPP Government’s deliberate and systematic constriction of the democratic space through the unbridled overreach of the Executive.
Based on the above, the APC hereby categorically state that they have lost faith in the leadership of the Police, Judiciary and the National Elections Commission and that by their poor and politically compromised leadership, the heads of these critical national institutions do not have the credibility, integrity and independence to serve Sierra Leone. The current Minister in the Ministry of Development and Economic Planning who is in charge of Statistics Sierra Leone they say should be investigated for waste of the country’s meagre resources by going ahead with the unprecedented mid-term census.
APC also demanded that Statistics SL should stop all activities they are putting up for what they termed as a discredited mid-term census. They are pleading with the World Bank and UNFPA not to support a process that is at variance with the Laws of Sierra Leone. The contested and controversial Census Statutory Instrument they say has not been properly laid in Parliament. The Pilot Census, the party says, is also not legal; some Sierra Leoneans have strongly supported civil society organizations and political parties in opposition to the mid-term census.
APC say the people of Sierra Leone would like to ask the World Bank and other institutions to review their decision to fund the mid-term census. Continuing with mid-term census, the party continued, has the tendency to create instability in the country. The EU Report they say has highlighted and described the holding of such an exercise when elections are just around the corner as unnecessary.
Now therefore, while APC say they applaud the EU for their forthright Elections Follow–Up report and acknowledge the said report as a root and branch verified validation of their concerns over the existential threat to democratic good governance, peace and national cohesion.
Given the uncomfortable fact ,as the party claims, that the APC and the people of Sierra Leone have endured more than three agonizing years of the constitutional abuses and state sanctioned violence; and being cognizant of the fact that intransigence on the part of the President Bio – led SLPP Government, and the failure to, in good faith, accept legitimate criticism, underscores an unwillingness to make amends and do what is right and needed for free, fair, credible and peaceful elections; APC herein demands, in the wider interest of peace, stability and national cohesion, the immediate resignation of or removal from office the leadership of the Sierra Leone Police, the Judiciary and the National Electoral Commission.
