Sierra Leone Gives Koroma Another Chance
 |
| President, Ernest Bai Koroma |
The election also included voting for parliamentary seats and local council offices. Some 87.3% of the country’s electorate voted, making it one of the highest recorded in the country’s national election history. The election itself was conducted peacefully, amid concerns about violence due to heightened pre-election rhetoric, including sharp attacks on the records of particularly Koroma and Bio, and incidents of violence in the weeks preceding polling. International and local observers have described the election as meeting the internationally-recognized threshold for democratic elections.
UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, in a statement, commended the high voter turnout and the remarkable calm displayed by the electorates during voting. He maintained that that was a clear manifestation of Sierra Leoneans’ “desire for peace, democracy and development.”
The Head of the EU observer mission, Richard Howitt, in an earlier briefing, said the election on Saturday, November 17, was well organized, smooth, conducive to democratic consolidation and largely peaceful, though he expressed concerns over what he regarded as financial bribery of paramount chiefs by the APC. Paramount chiefs are traditional leaders who head their various chiefdoms throughout the country. They maintain enormous influence over their chiefdom subjects. Paramount Chiefs are supposed to remain neutral during electioneering. The APC denied the allegation.
Another international observer group, the US-based Carter Center, in its preliminary reports described the election process as peaceful, orderly, transparent, and in general accordance with Sierra Leone’s legal framework and obligations for democratic elections. Though the group raised concerns over what it called some limited administrative shortcomings, it said that NEC officials “performed admirably in difficult conditions, and that the people of Sierra Leone turned out in high numbers to cast their ballots freely.”
The West African regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also gave its stamp of approval to the election. It described it as well conducted, and that the few isolated incidents of irregularities do not affect the credibility of the entire process. At the national level, the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC), a group set up to monitor the activities of all registered parties for the elections, commended the performances of both the parties and NEC for their role during and after the November 17 poll. Its chairman, Justice Tolla Thompson, said political parties conducted their affairs in a peaceful and lawful matter that respected the Code of Conduct for Political Parties.
Nonetheless, Koroma’s main rival, Bio, and his SLPP party – prior to the NEC’s announcement – had expressed concerns over what they saw as wide-scale fraud by the APC in several polling centers in the northern and western regions, and in the diamond-rich Kono, home to Vice President Sam Sumana which is in the eastern region of the country. NEC disputed much of the SLPP claims of fraud. Thorpe, in an earlier statement suggested that evidence of such claims should be reported to the police. The SLPP has meanwhile indicated it intends to contest the results announced by the NEC and Koroma’s re-election.
In a radio broadcast, a day after the result was announced, Mr. Bio alleged “electoral irregularities including fake and unstamped Reconciliation and Result Forms, pre-marked ballot papers, ballot stuffing and over-voting in Kono the Western Area and the Northern Province....” He promised his party will soon contact members and supporters on their official line of action. They can challenge the validity of the election of the President by petitioning the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone, but must do so within seven days following the NEC’s declaration. President Koroma took the oath of office just hours after he was declared the winner. He appealed for calm. He promised to work in the interest of all Sierra Leone regardless of party affiliations. He also called on his former opponents to join him “in moving the country forward.”
Umaru Fofana, a Sierra Leonean reporter for the BBC, and head of one of the nation’s independent newspapers, Politico, said it appears the President’s call for calm is being heeded. Fofana who drove around the central and west end of Freetown after the announcement reported relatively subdued celebrations in those areas. Freetown was one of the strongholds of President Koroma. With Bio being a former leader of the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) military junta that overthrew the APC from power in 1992, the APC was more than determined not to have him unseat them from power again. With some former members of the NPRC now members of the APC, Bio took the brunt of the APC’s loathing of the junta he previously headed.
The dismal performance of the SLPP in this year’s elections stemmed from a number of factors, chief of which were poor organization and leadership going back to the start of their search for a possible presidential ticket. Some, even within the hierarchy of the party believe Maada Bio was the wrong choice at this time. The party has also been hampered with divisions within its ranks, with some of its members, including some who vied for the presidential nomination, jumping ship to the APC.
Bio’s poor performance has been the worst by the SLPP since 1996, when the country was returned to democratic rule. It was Maada Bio himself, who, as outgoing junta ruler, ushered in the Ahmad Tejan Kabbah-led SLPP government that won the presidency that year. Tejan Kabbah secured 59.49% to beat his run-off rival, John Karefa-Smart of the United National People’s Party. Over 50% of the electorate voted in that election. Kabbah was reelected in 2002 with a landslide of more than 70% of the votes, beating then APC challenger, Ernest Koroma. Koroma quickly conceded defeat. Five years later, in 2007, Ernest Koroma defeated then SLPP Vice President, Solomon Berewa, 54.6% to 45.4%. Berewa, too, conceded defeat.
This year’s election was the third since the end of the country’s civil war. However, it was the first organized by the country itself without the help of the United Nations. The first two – conducted by the United Nations – were held in 2002 and 2007 respectively. The admirable performance of the electorate on November 17 was a reflection of what happened in 2002 and 2007. SLPP supporters are sure to grieve their loss. However, despite the tense campaign bickering and acrimony that defined pre-election relations between some of the supporters of both parties, the drive for national unity, peace and progress is deep-seated in the cultural psyche of the ordinary citizen in present-day Sierra Leone.
One ardent SLPP supporter here in the United States, Alimamy Rassin Kamara, in his courageous response to Koroma’s wins, says: “We owe it to our country and the people to accept the results for what they are and conduct ourselves in the most peaceful and law-abiding way.” It is expected that those feelings of despondency and elation, on the part of the winning side, will soon give way to one that puts the collective interests of the nation above all else.
Aroun Rashid Deen
The author [email protected] is a freelance journalist. He lives in New York City.