By Hajaratu Kalokoh
The long awaited students’ union election at Fourah Bay College has finally been conducted with a law student emerging as President for the first time.
Augustine Bona, a second year student at Sierra Leone's first institution of higher learning, emerged the winner on Thursday 31 October in a poll that was characterised by controversy. All but one of the three candidates withdrew from the contest hours before voting, citing irregularities in the conduct of the poll.
Frederick Tucker and Mohammed Kabba accused the college’s authorities of bias towards Bona. They specifically claimed that the voters’ list was not published 72 hours before polling as the electoral rules stipulated.
According to a notice jointly signed by the Deputy Register of FBC, Munda Lebbie and Warden of Students Rev. Cannon Buck, Augustine Bona polled 326 votes. Despite stepping down from the race, Mohammed Kabba polled 231 votes, while Federick Turker polled 11 votes, while 23 votes were invalidated.
Thursday’s event was the third attempt at conducting the long overdue election. The delay had been caused by violence by rival candidates.
Last month the college authorities decided to conduct the elections online to minimize human interface, in the hope that it could eliminate any chance of violence.
The college administration however couldn’t push through with that controversial idea which was opposed by some of the candidates.
Bona said he intended to go into action immediately to reunite the student population and seek to fulfil his campaign promises.
“My first priority is to unify students and try to work on my campaign promises, which are seeking students’ welfare in the aspect of reinstating them in to hostels, and providing internship programmes, etc.,” he told Politico shortly after he had been declared winner.
Kabba said he stepped down because of irregularities he observed surrounding the conduct of the election.
“I noticed some irregularities like bias. I tried to talk to the college authorities but they were not receptive. The deputy commissioner drove me out his office,” he said.
Prior to the voting day, Politico got hold of a footage in which Turker made it known to his supporters that he was not participating in the election because his concerns had not been entertained by the administration.
“I have made calls countless times but repeatedly I was ignored by the administration. I went to the registrar’s office, I was not given access to speak to him as a presidential aspirant. As we speak, the other candidate is in their administrative building having a discussion with the administration,” he alleged, lamentably.
He added: “The playing ground is not level and as such I am not going into this election.”
But Bona claimed that he didn’t know exactly the reasons behind the decisions of his challengers to step down from the race even though he had heard about some of their concerns. He denied that he received any special favours from the college administration, noting that he had conducted himself with integrity throughout the campaign.
“I know for sure they raised concerns with regards to favours, but I want to be clear [that] I have executed my leadership ability to a very large extent in so many different quarters with integrity. I would not in any ways connect myself with any influence that will give me an undue edge over my opponents,” he said in a video.
The election has left the student population divided over the fairness of the process.
Both the student warden and the deputy registrar of the college who presided over the election, did not respond to calls or text messages from Politico seeking their responses to the allegations.
© 2019 Politico Online
