On Tuesday, February 6th, 2024, the co-chairs of the cross-party Committee on Electoral Systems and Management Bodies Review signed the Terms of Reference for their activities at a press briefing held at the precinct of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Corporation by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education through Minister Chernor Bah.
The committee which comprises seven members each from the government; the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC), and a representative from international partners, was set up in compliance with one of the eight resolutions following a three-day post elections mediated dialogue held between 16th-18th October 2023.
The dialogue subsequently ended a standstill by the APC who had boycotted governance in protest against the June 24th elections results. The APC among other things demanded that the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone release the summary of all statements of results from the polling stations, the resignation of the Chief Electoral Commissioner, and called for a rerun election.
The dialogue which was mediated by the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Commonwealth, and the Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion (ICPNC), ended the impasse but was not the finish line. It created what the APC flagbearer Dr. Samura Kamara described as “a long journey”.
The co-chairs of the committee – the United Nations resident coordinator Seraphine Wakana, the APC representative Dr. Kaifala Marah, and the government’s representative Dr. Emmanuel Gaima – all committed themselves to the success of the examination of the electoral system, structures, procedures, and processes, as key to strengthening Sierra Leone’s democracy. However, Marah of APC and Gaima of the ruling SLPP party were found to be on different pages on the issue of whether a rerun election which is one of the demands of the APC is a possibility.
Dr. Gaima states that the committee is not a statutory body suggesting that its powers are incredibly limited. He adds that “to the best of his knowledge” the committee does not have powers to request a rerun of the election.
Dr. Marrah who sidestepped a direct answer to that question says that they have a mandate to examine and investigate the elections and whatever recommendations they will have to make at the end of the day “will be based on findings.” He adds that the release of the disaggregated elections data is still pretty much one of the demands their party is looking forward to. This, he says, is possible with existing legislation such as the Right to Access Information Act. The recommendations of the committee are said to be “actionable and implementable” but their alignment with the constitution will largely determine that.
The government still claims credit for the setting up of the ‘Tripartite Committee’ albeit it was one of the resolutions of a dialogue that involved several international partners. Dr. Gaima argues that an electoral systems and management bodies review committee had been proposed by President Julius Maada Bio in his State Opening Address of the 6th Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone. The committee was criticized by the former US Ambassador to Sierra Leone, David Reimer, since it was to be led by the Vice President of Sierra Leone Dr. Mohammed Juldeh Jalloh who was a contestant in the 2023 elections. Reimer adds that the outcome of the elections put the Millenium Challenge Corporation Compact, a US funding program in jeopardy. The diplomat’s views were strongly opposed by government ministers, including Chief Minister David Sengeh who wrote on social media that:
“When our partners make incendiary statements that have the potential to disrupt our democracy backed by their own data and personal beliefs, we must understand that there are consequences to those words.”
Following this, in September 2023 the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken issued visa restrictions to certain unnamed individuals who were deemed to be undermining democracy in Sierra Leone. The sanctions which were announced by the US did not out-rightly say they targeted government officials but members of government including the Presidential Spokesman Alhaji Alpha Kanu and the former Press Secretary Solomon Jamir reacted to it, promising engagement with the US authorities. No announcement has been on that ever since.
However, the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced a $ 1.5 million US support for electoral reforms. She also denied knowing their government pushing for a rerun election which appeared to be the subject of controversy amidst the implementation of an Agreement for National Unity.
APC’s Dr. Marah says it’s a topic that people should shy away from especially with the work of the committee very much in the balance. SLPP’s Dr. Gaima also cautions that the outcome of their work should not be pre-empted. Whatever it will turn out to be, Sierra Leoneans patiently await to see. At the signing of the Agreement, parties noted that “no individual or candidate who participated in the June 24th, 2023 elections challenged the gazetted results (by) (20th July 2023) in court. This as far as the constitution of Sierra Leone is concerned rules out any possibility of the much talked about but far-fetched likelihood of a rerun election. Whatever will be found will go to the future – “addressing the contentious issues of elections and results management including the collation, verification, authentication, and publishing of electoral data consistent with international best practice to enhance the credibility of all future elections in Sierra Leone that guarantees elections to be free, fair and credible.”
There are also concerns that the other resolutions of the agreement have not been implemented. Dr. Marah reminds the government that the discontinuation of cases deemed to be “politically motivated”, paying of backlog salaries to the APC parliamentarians and councilors, and other resolutions are still hanging as unresolved issues. The government says some of the issues are a result of challenges they are dealing with.
The Chief Minister tells Radio Democracy that the government could not release the prisoners in APC’s submitted list because a lot of inmates were set free in the incidents of November 27th, 2023, which the government says was an attempted coup.
Smaller political parties are also calling for the institutionalization of an inter-party dialogue framework. Besides the two giants who have exchanged power since independence, these parties have also had their little territory in Sierra Leone’s governance architecture but with the reintroduction of the Proportional Representation System for the 2023 elections, none of the smaller parties could make it to Parliament or local council. Marrah believes it is the law that does not favour these parties, suggesting that it is not inclusive. Likely when this resolution on the inter-party dialogue framework is facilitated by the government, smaller parties will advocate for a change of the system, otherwise, they will hardly be able to make a comeback and have a place in governance.
So far both the government and the APC have done quite a bit to implement what was signed in front of the international mediators who double as moral guarantors and Sierra Leoneans in whose interest both parties claim to be working. Some parts of the checklist are now a done deal and have been ticked off but there is much left to do to make sure the Agreement is implemented to the letter. Dr. Marrah promises a “judicious job” whilst Dr. Gaima states the government’s firm belief in the process, asserting that electoral reforms are an ongoing process.
In September 2023 President Julius Maada Bio, addressing his party members at his alma mater, stated that “elections are contentious everywhere” and that the issue of opposition disputing results is not peculiar to Sierra Leone. Dr. Marah says this is one reason electoral processes should be transparent to reduce the tensions that follow the pronouncement of election winners. It is important as well to prevent a repeat of issues such as the boycott the APC resorted to and other similar actions that do not bode well for democracy. With the resources at hand both from development partners and the government and the political will so far, Sierra Leoneans should hope for a better outcome, ushering in reformed electoral systems that foster peaceful elections and power transitions with minimal foreign involvement or intervention.
