SAMURA KAMARA – The legitimate winner of the Elections
The government of the United States of America has called for an immediate investigation into the just concluded Presidential elections in Sierra Leone. In a statement read by the State Department spokesperson, the US Administration said “The United States continues to be concerned about irregularities in the election results announced by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL). Independent parallel vote tabulations and analyses by accredited national and international observation missions raise questions about the integrity of the official results.
“We call on the government to institute an independent, outside investigation of the elections process and integrate observer recommendations to improve the electoral modalities for future elections.
“We are also disturbed by the reports of intimidation – including death threats – against domestic and international observers, civil society organizations, and ECSL personnel. We call on all actors to exercise restraint and engage in peaceful dialogue to resolve disputes.
“The resolve and determination of Sierra Leoneans who went out to the polls on June 24 to make their voices heard was inspiring. Free and fair elections are essential for any democracy.
“The government and political parties must commit to strengthening democratic institutions to better protect the rights and reflect the aspirations of the people of Sierra Leone.”
Mohamed Konneh with Julius Maada Bio – The biggest electoral fraud Africa has ever seen
The People of Sierra Leone are demanding regime change and the restoration of the rightful winner Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara. who is widely believed to have won the elections with a comfortable landslide. The current President, is regarded as a human rights abuser, and a fraudster and has been accused of swindling the country’s money and living an ostentatious lifestyle with his wife. If Recent media reports are anything to go by, the presidency has been accused of forging hotel receipts to make fraudulent claims to defraud the treasury of millions of dollars of tax payers money. In 2022 alone. it was reported that 3 million dollars was paid to the presidency for travel allowances.
The very reliable and cogent Africanist Press recently reported huge amounts of monies were paid to the corrupt head of state and his wife.
In another twist, the influential Council on Foreign relations (CFR), an American think tank specializing in international foreign policy had this to say:
Life has been hard for the people of Sierra Leone. They have been coping with soaring inflation, high rates of poverty and unemployment, and widespread food insecurity. Over the past year, these conditions have triggered popular protests, which were met with a deadly state response. With 67 percent of Sierra Leonians believing their country is headed in the wrong direction, one might have expected a surge of “change” votes in the June 24 general election. Few expected the incumbent to be re-elected in the first round, which required that he garner over 55 percent of the votes cast. Thus, it was somewhat surprising when the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone announced that incumbent President Julius Maada Bio had been reelected with just over 56 percent of the votes.
Surprise has turned to alarm. International observers, usually quite mild in their assessments, have been pointed in raising concerns about the process. The EU Observation Mission has pointed to “statistical inconsistencies” in reported results. In a joint statement, the United States and several European ambassadors expressed concern about “the lack of transparency in the tabulation process” even as they called for all parties to exercise restraint. Domestic observers with the seasoned organization National Elections Watch found “major disparities” between their Parallel Vote Tabulation and the official results. For their trouble, some of the members of NEW have reportedly been threatened and harassed.
The major opposition party has demanded that elections be re-run. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has been trying to hold the line on unconstitutional transfers of power in the region in accordance with its Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, but has struggled to respond to murkier problems like third-term bids, has been notably quiet since it issued a preliminary statement on June 26.
If the election was rigged, what is to be done about it? For external actors like the United States, the standard playbook in these situations in to emphasize the importance of calm, and to urge parties to pursue their concerns through the courts. But according to Afrobarometer, just 32 percent of Sierra Leonians trust the courts “somewhat” or “a lot.” Friends of Sierra Leone, and champions of democracy, cannot simply point toward a potential judicial process and then move on.
Elections that are only “peaceful and inclusive” in name but neither free, fair, nor transparent in reality are a problem, not a cause for celebration. They erode support for democracy because they misrepresent it as political theater that has no real relationship to citizens’ ability to hold their leaders accountable for their performance. States that have emerged from horrific conflict, like Sierra Leone, are not well-served by the idea that simply averting conflict is “good enough.” Peace should not be premised simply on a fear of returning to the past, but rather hope for building a better future. With multiple elections approaching in the region, both ECOWAS and Sierra Leone’s development partners need the courage of their convictions. Accepting election results that lack integrity only increases the chances of unconstitutional transfers of power down the line and dims the prospects for sustainable growth. Election-rigging should be met with consequences tough enough to make it undesirable, and civic champions of a fair process—who are channeling the overwhelming popular support for democratic governance—deserve meaningful support.
https://www.cfr.org/blog/addressing-election-integrity-sierra-leone
The clear and present danger is, the country can sink into another civil war if these urgent issues are not addressed by the international community and the US has taken the lead to demand for an immediate investigation. The European Union has also been quite vocal about the inconsistencies reported by its observers and has expressed concerns about irregularities and transparency issues that were discovered. There are suggestions that Dr Samura Kamara will be asked to form a government in waiting so that the International Community can channel much needed assistance to enable the country to function until the rogue regime is finally removed. This has been welcomed by the people and they are optimistic that the United Kingdom will lead the way in providing this much needed breakthrough.
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