By Nasratu Kargbo
The Koinadugu district local council chairperson bye election has been won by All Peoples Congress (APC) candidate Lawrence Teteh Kargbo . The National Electoral Commission late evening of Tuesday 5th October 2021 released a statement certifying the result of the election which indicated Kargbo secured 20,435 votes whilst his only challenger Alhaji Sheku Koroma of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) got 13,061 votes.
The Ward 155 election in the same district was won by SLPP’s Thoronka Kallie with 1,143 votes. Mamudu Saio Koroma of APC got 1,136 votes.
The process was marred by traded accusations from both sides of the political divide of attempted rigging and acts of violence, with each claiming to have won the election. Continuation of vote counting and collating of results had to be stopped by NEC and the process shifted to Wellington. The electoral body asked four representatives from each of the two political parties APC and SLPP to be present for continuation of counting of the ballot papers at the NEC facility in Wellington that was scheduled for Monday 4th October.
A press release from National Elections Watch (NEW) on the 4th October 2021, had reported a standoff at different centres in the Koinadugu bye-election conducted on the 2nd October 2021. The bye-elections were for the positions of Chairperson for Koinadugu District Council and Councilor for Ward 155.
The release stated that the impasse at a number of centres came about after the APC party agent noticed 3 doted marks on some ballot papers against the SLPP candidate’s voting space in one of the ballot books, and the agent insisting that the entire ballot book be cancelled. This brought about a standoff and the whole voting process had to stop for a while.
The situation was addressed by APC’s Dr. Kaifala Marah who asked that vote continues and suggested that during the course of counting those dotted lines “should not invalidate any ballot”. The release further explained that whilst they were trying to solve the standoff Deputy Minister of Political and Public Affairs, Amara Kallon and the Minister of Youth Affairs, Mohamed Orman Bangura, “forcefully pushed people out of the polling station which compounded the chaos”.
In addition, “the marshals who accompanied the 2 ministers vandalized the left driving mirror of the car belonging to Minkailu Koroma (Esq.) of the APC” according to the press release. The car was packed around the polling centre.
Another impasse was reported at Centre Code 6047, RC Primary School Kabala. A “green Honda CRV Jeep” had reportedly speedily driven into the polling precinct, that caused panic amongst voters who were in the queues and when the police tried to halt him, he was said to have forced himself into the center. This ignited voters to pelt stones and completely destroying his vehicle; he was arrested for obstructing the process. There were also other problems reported in other centres.
NEW in their release explained that the tally was suspended because of discrepancies in the entry of results in the tally sheets. These tallies were detected during the tallying by Dr. Richard Konteh and Dr. Kaifala Marah of the APC on the results from Centre code 6096. However, the situation was resolved; the NEC staff that did the wrong imputing was immediately replaced, NEW stated.
Another incident reported fueled up an argument between the two parties; which caused the NEC Commissioner to summon the leadership of the two political parties and advised them to calm their members in order for the process to continue.
The number of those present was cut down to five for each party, “the following political stalwarts were present at the Tallying Centre; Umaru Napoleon Koroma (Esq.), Mantene Marah, Dr Richard Konteh, Dr Kaifala, Hon. Lamin Kabba and Hon Lahai Marah. Ordinarysupporters of both political parties that had no role in the tallying process were allowed in the hall”.
To NEC, NEW recommended that they train their staff on electoral ethics and integrity in order not to undermine the gains of our democracy and also stated that the staff that entered wrong figures in the tallying sheet must be handed over to the police for full investigations.
NEW recommended that the Sierra Leone Police investigate, arrest and prosecute the owners of vehicles without registered number plates, who were plying the polling areas.
NEW stated that they observed both bye-elections in order to determine the extent at which democratic elections are upheld as enshrined in the 1991 constitution, the Public Elections Act (PEA) of 2012 and that other regional and international principles are respected. Despite all the intimidations, “generally, the voting and counting ended peacefully”, NEW pointed out.
Copyright © Politico Online (06/10/21)
