By Saio Marrah
The Supreme Court of Sierra Leone has dismissed an Oral Application made by Charles F. Margai, saying that the application should have been supported by an affidavit; a procedure which the court said was not followed.
Margai was requesting that Chief Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards and an Appeal Court Judge, Ivan Sesay step aside from the panel of judges in the Supreme Court case between the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) political party versus the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice case.
The ruling of the five panels of judges, read out by the Chief Justice and Chairman of the Supreme Court, Babatunde Edwards, at the High Court No.1 in Freetown on Thursday 13th July 2023, ordered Margai to file the application in affidavit within 10 days for the bench to proceed with the case.
In his response to the ruling, Margai promised to file the application supported by an affidavit before the stipulated date.
It could be recalled that in his application made last week Thursday 6th July 2023, Margai had told the court that since the Chief Justice swore in the President-elect, Julius Maada Bio it would be a conflict of interest for him to be a member of the panel.
With regards to Justice Ivan Sesay, Margai noted that in such a matter, which is of serious concern and touches on human rights, it is necessary for all of the Judges on the Panel to be Supreme Court Judges, claiming Justice Sesay is from the Appeal Court.
The notice of motion filed by the PMDC and Patrick John requested that the Supreme Court declare unconstitutional and therefore null and void the appointment of Mohamed Konneh as ECSL Chair.
They claimed that Konneh was until his appointment, Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) which they argue contravenes the provisions of the 1991 Constitution.
The notice also asked the court to declare that ECSL did not judiciously exercise the latitude given to it by Section 169 of the 2022 Public Election Act, calling into question the fairness, credibility, and transparency of the electoral process, taking into account the introduction by ECSL for the first time, of a novel electoral process known as the portal system which they said was unreliable because of a series of breakdowns.
It was also requested that the court declares that matters involving fundamental rights of citizens pending in the Supreme Court, must be heard by five substantive Supreme Court Judges and not otherwise.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (14/07/23)
