This is a letter written to President Ernest Bai Koroma by Ansu B. Lansana, the candidate for Constituency 005 whose votes were nullified by Justice Adeliza Showers. It was received on Friday 6 December 2013. It reads:
Your Excellency!
I write to you during this Christmas season of goodwill in the hope that you receive my concerns in the spirit of goodwill and a kind Christian heart.
I must start by introducing myself to you for ease of recollection and recognition.
- I am Ansu Baatillo Lansana, the founder Secretary General of the PMDC;
- I was one of the 6-member Joint APC-PMDC Strategic Committee for the 2007 Presidential run-off;
- I was the trailblazer for the joint APC-PMDC Presidential run-off campaign entourage to Kailahun that was attacked at Segbwema;
- I resigned from the PMDC to return to the SLPP in 2009 because the marginalization of South-easterners by the APC undermined my continued membership of the PMDC which was in alliance with the APC;
- I contested the November 2012 Parliamentary Elections for the SLPP in Constituency 005, Kailahun District, and the High Court recently nullified my 11,300 votes in favour of Regina Marah Songa’s 1,500 votes.
Your Excellency Sir, I write to you not in your capacity as Chairman and Leader of the All Peoples Congress but as President for all Sierra Leoneans. I also write to you as the “Fountain of Honour and Justice and the symbol of national unity and sovereignty” as stipulated in Section 40 (2) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone.
Your Excellency Sir, the recent High Court Judgment has left me shocked and stupefied. It states that the Plaintiff’s case lacks merit and that he did not prove his allegations on the balance of probabilities. The Plaintiff’s case was therefore dismissed. However, the Learned Trial Judge ordered that the votes cast in my favour were null and void because I had held myself out as a candidate in contravention of the Court’s injunction handed down 24 HOURS before the elections.
Logically speaking, Sir, it defies reason for the Court to state that I won the case, and then proceed to deprive me of my seat in Parliament. The reason that I breached the Court injunction rings hollow because the question that begs to be asked is “did I print my name and face on the ballot paper?” Was it not the case that NEC found it administratively difficult to disseminate the requisite instructions that my name and face be crossed out on the ballot papers? How can I be penalised for the Court’s 11th hour injunction and NEC’s administrative hiccups in giving efficacious effect to it?
The other mind-boggling aspect of the Judgment is that the injunction for which I am penalised was granted on the supposition that the Plaintiff’s case was good. If the Court has now found that his case was not good then it stands to reason that the injunction ought not to have been granted in the first place. As a lawyer who conducted the case as Defendant-in-Person, I expected the Court to have vacated the injunction and ordered that the Plaintiff make good his undertaking to pay me damages. Lastly, I expected the Court to have ordered that the entire results be announced by NEC or, alternatively, that bye elections be conducted to seek a fresh mandate from the people of constituency 005. The reason for this is that Membership of Parliament is a sacred role played by an individual who is freely and legitimately elected by the people. Anything short of that is undemocratic and violates the time-tested mantra of “GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE”.
Your Excellency Sir, I am dissatisfied with the Judgment of the High Court and I have filed an Appeal against it. However, I do recognize the fact that there is, in addition to the legal aspect of the matter, a very serious political dimension to it as well. I seek JUSTICE not only for myself but for the people of the 3 chiefdoms that constitute constituency 005. Since that Judgment was delivered, I have been inundated with calls from the constituents registering disappointment at the Judgment and a staunch determination not to recognize an MP for whom they did not vote to be foisted on them.
I am aware, Sir, that you have won several international awards for Democratic Governance and you have promised to run this nation as a business. I implore you not to allow undemocratic political partners to derail your political business entity by disenfranchising the people of constituency 005. Please don’t allow a situation in which a Member of Parliament would represent a constituency with less than 20% of the people’s mandate. That would be a sure recipe for unrest and it will not augur well for security in the affected constituency or the nation as a whole. Besides, the international community who spent huge tax-payers money to restore peace in Sierra Leone and entrench its fragile democracy would be alarmed at such flagrant violation of democratic principles and best practices.
The basis for my apprehension, Sir, is the behaviour of Sam May Macarthy who instituted the action against me. After the proceedings in the High Court had begun, he switched over from the SLPP to the APC. On12th November 2012 (5 days to the November 17 elections) he brought 5 bus-loads of people from constituency 005 to declare support for the APC, and promised to deliver constituency 005 to the APC. Whilst the matter was sub judice, he boasted to the people of constituency 005 that as long as he was with the APC, Ansu Lansana will never sit in parliament.
Your Excellency Sir, I am apprehensive that if Sam Macarthy’s pronouncement becomes a reality, it will create the impression that the APC is conniving with him and giving him support. Much as I don’t want to believe that I do know, however, that in Sierra Leone perceptions are stronger than realities. I sincerely hope that you are not the kind of statesman who would allow such injustice to be perpetrated under his watch.
Lastly, I implore you to intervene to prevent a dangerous precedent from being etched on the political landscape of this nation. If I can win a petition and be deprived of my seat in parliament when my party is in the opposition and the ruling party becomes the beneficiary of that spooky framework, what will stop the SLPP from machinating a similar situation when they are in power and the APC is in opposition? As the saying goes, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. I just got reminded of a favourite quote from Shakespeare’s MACBETH.
“For we that teach bloody instructions, which being taught, return to plague th’inventor”.
Your Excellency Sir, Please use your good offices to prevent this ugly scenario from crystalising as a political norm in this land that we love, our Sierra Leone.
May I use this opportunity to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.
Your Humble Subject,
Ansu Baatillo Lansana Esq.
(C) Politico 10/12/13
