By Alpha Abu
The Secretary-General of the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) Umaru Napoleon Koroma says their party remains confident that the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) will hold credible elections next week.
He was speaking at a news conference at the SLPP headquarters in Freetown on Thursday 15th June that was called to react to the main opposition Presidential Candidate Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara’s Press Statement issued on the 14th June 2023.
The All Peoples Congress (APC) flag bearer had reportedly issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed K. Konneh, and his regional commissioners to resign, levying a series of allegations and asking for the international community to conduct the polls.
The SLPP scribe said such demands by Dr. Kamara were an affront to the sovereignty of the nation, sowing seeds for post-election violence and with a tendency to ignite a constitutional crisis.
He said the APC presidential candidate’s utterances were also in breach of the Commonwealth-supported Peace Pledge Dr.Kamara and incumbent President Julius Maada Bio of the SLPP, signed recently.
He accused the APC party of subjecting the chief electoral commissioner and staff to tribal profiling, and threats laced with hate messages.
He said the government is surprised at the silence of international partners and Civil Society Organisations.
Koroma described the events of the 12th and 13th of June as botched protests that he claimed were goaded by the opposition and their overseas supporters.
The Chairman of SLPP, Dr. Prince A. Harding told journalists that ever since President Bio was sworn into office five years ago, the APC has refused to accept the outcome of the election and has resorted to using social media and an individual based in Holland going by the pseudonym “Adebayor” to incite people, and cited the 10th August 2022 violent protests which he said virtually led the country to the ‘’brink of war’’.
Dr.Harding said the news conference was to rebut what he said were the aggregate of lies bandied by the leadership of the APC.
He said SLPP leaders and supporters have been trying to keep the peace in the face of what he said are attacks of “unimaginable scale” and that there’s a limit to their patience.
He said the contents of the APC press statement were “full of inaccuracies, misinformation, and deliberate lies’’, and accused the APC leadership of not once denouncing “Adebayor” for his social media statements.
Dr. Harding said the SLPP has always maintained a peaceful posture and boasts of democratic credentials which he described as unequaled and stressed they will not sit by and allow APC to create dissension.
Information and Communications Minister, Mohamed Rahman Swaray said they will continue to put mechanisms in place that will deal with misinformation which he said is quite a challenge.
The SLPP Press Statement which was later presented noted that “ the controvertible statement’’ by the APC presidential candidate was “nothing more than a compendium of unsubstantiated claims, conjectures, blatant inaccuracies, and preposterous allegations by a candidate who is apprehensive of an embarrassing defeat at the forthcoming polls”.
The SLPP leaders then produced a document that listed alleged attacks on their supporters in the first two weeks of the campaign period. They highlighted cases of intimidation, attempted arson, and assault in various parts of the country.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (16/06/23)
