By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Sierra Leone Police have said that they were overwhelmed by the number of ‘thugs’ that attacked the polling center located at Sierra Model School in Constituency 110, Western Rural district, hence their inability to protect the electoral materials.
The Police made the admission at a press conference on Tuesday at their headquarters in Freetown.
The polling center was attacked following the conclusion of the rerun of a parliamentary election in Constituency 110 last Saturday. A video relating to the incident which is making rounds on social media show people ransacking a polling center in the presence of Police officers.
The Director of Crime Services, Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Braima Jah, said the officers were overwhelmed because of the number of people involved and the remote location of the polling center.
AIG Jah said: “The space is not as big as the room we are occupying here. Then we had up to 80 people in such a small space and by the time we got there the place was already chaotic. We tried our best, but we were overwhelmed.”
Jah added: “We did our best by putting into use the experience of what we have learnt in other elections.”
The SLP said it deployed more than 300 personnel across the constituency to work side by side with the military during the elections.
The build up to the rerun election was marred by violent clashes between the two major political parties, Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) and All Peoples Congress (APC). One of those scuffles led to the arrest of more than two dozen people including prominent figures in the main opposition APC.
Police say they have only arrested two people following this latest incident. However, they say they will continue to make more arrests.
“The arrests are not going to stop. Those who are relevant to the investigation will be arrested,” Jah said.
During the press conference, there were questions surrounding the preparedness of Police to secure the elections following the tensions that already existed between the two major contenders. The Regional Commander for Freetown West, Assistant Inspector General, Ambrose Sovula said they had prepared adequately for the elections despite the incident at the polling center.
“We were prepared for it (election). But we could not over do it. The incident was spontaneous and the location, this was a secluded place,” AIG Sovula said.
The Police added that they had to walk a tight rope between providing security for the election and not intimidating voters by over policing the election. As a result, most of their men had to be deployed at checkpoints and at the entrance of polling centers.
This is not the first time Police have come under scrutiny in handling elections. In the past they have been criticized for brutality and other professional misconducts. Jah said the latest incident is a show of their restraint and professionalism.
“Some of the Police officers were engaged in dialogue with people to control the situation. We cannot just discharge firearms or tear gas cannisters just like that, those traditional days are gone. There are rules of engagement which we must observe.”
The election which was held on Saturday August 24 pitted APC’s Kadie Davies against SLPP’s Josephine Jackson. A third contender, Ibrahim Kabba, ran on the ticket of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) while Femi Claudius-Cole was on the ballot for the Unity Party.
The rerun was ordered by the High Court in May. The court stated among other things that that the election which had been won by APC’s Kadie Davies in 2018 was marred by violence, intimidation and malpractice.
As a result of this latest outbreak of violence at Sierra Model School, the National Electoral Commission canceled the elections, nullifying all other results across the entire constituency in the process.
The cancellation of the elections has provoked widespread condemnation from all four contesting parties. A new date for another rerun has not been announced yet. However, there are already concerns about the heightened tensions another election will bring in the constituency. Something which the Police say they will be better prepared for following their latest experience.
The parliamentary seat in Constituency 110 is the last vacant seat in the Wester Area. Winning the seat for any of the two leading parties will change the dynamics in the House of Parliament.
© 2019 Politico Online
