By Mabinty M. Kamara
The 2019 elections for the Presidency of the Women in the Media Sierra Leone (WIMSAL) has left the association in turmoil.
The losing candidate, Mariama Kai Fornah, has petitioned the result that declared her opponent, Femi Jarett Coker as President of the association.
Campaign Manager for Fornah’s presidential campaign, Aminata Massaquoi, said her camp was not satisfied with the outcome of the election, citing a “fraudulent” voter list as one of the many irregularities that they believed affected the outcome.
Fornah lost last weekend’s election to Coker by 13 votes. Her team say a new evidence they’ve uncovered now shows the voter list was doctored by the outgoing executive of which Coker was a part of as Vice President.
Ms Massaquoi praised the electoral body – the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists Electoral Committee (SLAJEC)’s handling of the election.
In a press conference held by the Fornah campaign team on Thursday, Massaquoi said: “While we commend the SLAJEC for the credible and transparent way in which it handled the entire process, within the prevailing circumstance, Team Mariama Kai Fornah is in possession of convincing evidence that the voters list put together by the outgoing WIMSAL executive of which the vice president, Femi Coker who contested the election and was declared winner was, partly-comprised names of dozens of illegitimate members of WIMSAL.”
The statement continued by highlighting reasons why the team was rejecting the results.
“Prior to voting on the 30th November 2019, due to concerns from our team on the bloated lists of voters, SLAJEC disqualified 11 voters from the Eastern Region, 8 from the Southern Region and 5 from Western Area because they were illegitimate members of WIMSAL. This shows that the final voters list was tampered with to disadvantage our candidate. However, there was no time for our team to verify the other two regions which we believe were also tampered with. SLAJEC prevailed on us to allow the elections to go on, since we can petition the result if we so desire. In addition, some members could pay their dues after the cut-off date of 22nd November 2019,” she added.
The allegations by the Kai Fornah team also include the seeming interference into the election by the SLAJ President, Ahmed Sahid Nasrallah. Nasrallah, who was present on voting day in Kenema, has since denied the allegation.
“Femi was one of my campaign managers when I contended for SLAJ. When she declared interest in WIMSAL presidency, I texted her and told her I can’t support her but wished her good luck. So, we had that understanding,” he said.
Ms Massaquoi also raised concerns about how proxy votes were handled by SLAJEC, especially by Ibrahim Tarawallie, one of the electoral officials.
“We are not satisfied with the way he handled the proxy votes presented to him from the Eastern Region,” she said.
The Chief Electoral Commissioner of SLAJEC, James Tamba Lebbie, acknowledged receiving an eight-point petition letter from Team Kai Fornah and said they were looking at it. Lebbie added that since investigations were ongoing, he wouldn’t comment on the nature of the investigations.
“I cannot make a comment on the nature of the petition but we are making statement later today to indicate that we have received the petition and that we are investigating it,” he told Politico, adding that they would need at least six weeks to complete the investigation.
On the allegation against SLAJEC member Ibrahim Tarawallie, Lebbie said even though Team Kai Fornah made the allegation without submitting evidence, the Commission took the issue “very seriously.”
The controversy has opened scars of division in an association that is barely struggling to function. The President elect, Coker, hasn’t responded to the petition. Insiders in her camp said she was focused on reuniting the association with series of activities in the coming months.
Outgoing WIMSAL President, Tiana Alpha, dismissed suggestions that she rigged the voters list. Alpha accused members of Team Kai Fornah of smearing her image. She told Politico that she had no interest in the outcome of the election and that she couldn’t have done anything to influence it negatively.
Ms Alpha blamed the whole confusion in the aftermath of the election on failure of some members to regularize their status on time.
The WIMSAL constitution doesn’t specify any timeline for the inauguration of the new president. Alpha said the delay in handing over to Coker had been caused by the inconclusiveness of the association’s deliberations in Kenema. But she said handing over could be done at any time from now.
Copyright © 2019 Politico Online
