Scores of opposition members and supporters from the eastern district of Kailahun were yesterday at State House to pledge their support for the re-election bid of President Ernest Bai Koroma and his All People's Congress party.
They all cited the expulsion from the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party of outgoing parliamentarian, Sam-May McCarthy as reason for their defection. He had lost out in his bid to be awarded a symbol to run again which he did not take lightly and did what his party says amounts to a breach of internal party disciplinary codes.
Welcoming the new converts to the APC – the figure was put at 200 – President Ernest Bai Koroma said he and McCarthy had been friends “for a very long time” adding that their friendship continued even when they both belonged to different parties.
“We will only now continue with our old friendship,” the president went on. He referred to him as “trustworthy and dependable” and assured the new faithful of victory on Saturday. He urged his supporters to remain peaceful throughout the entire electoral process.
McCarthy said that he felt badly treated by the SLPP which he said he had worked diligently for. He alleged that during president Koroma's recent visit to his area he was accused of betrayal for praising the head of state.
The withdrawal of the three candidates from the race effectively leaves the contest in the constituency between the APC candidate, Regina Marrah and the SLPP standard bearer in the opposition stronghold, Ansu Lansana. The latter is regarded as the favourite even though the withdrawn candidates will still have their names on the ballots.
In a somewhat interesting twist, Lansana has been slammed an interlocutory injunction by a Freetown High Court barring him from campaigning and even contesting. But the National Electoral Commission argues that the approval of his candidacy predates the injunction and that ballot papers have been printed in South Africa and flown in hence cannot be changed in the few remaining days to the polls.
Meanwhile, the Acting Secretary General of the PMDC Aiah Eric Jabbah has reacted angrily to the development. Even though he said he had not received any official letter from the candidate, he said he was “surprised and not surprised” saying it was “one of the games of the APC party...to dish out money” to opposition members to defect to them. “Buying of votes is very undone” Jabbah bellowed. He however said that the defectors had no following to take along with them “because they lack any support on their own”.
The defections yesterday came days after three other opposition candidates in Constituency 65 in the ruling party stronghold of Tonkolili withdrew from the race. In what appears to have been written and printed out in the same place with same font size and type, layout, language and those copied in, Michael S. Koroma of the SLPP and Alie Jalloh of the PMDC wrote to the National Electoral Commission to say they were no longer interested in running for parliament. They gave no reasons in their letters.
That leaves Mabinty Funna as the sole candidate in the constituency. Speaking to Politico she denied the men were under any pressure to withdraw. “They were not under any kind of pressure from any one”. She said they acted the way they did because “maybe they did not lose sight of the fact [the constituency] is the stronghold of the APC”. She said the withdrawal “does not make much difference because I would have still won, but for the fact that they are no longer my opponents and they’re helping to see that the party wins, I feel good”.
The spokesman of the National Electoral Commission, Albert Massaquoi says the constituency is not incontestable since the law stipulates that there must be at least ten days before voting day for any such withdrawal to take effect, and that it should be done through the political party.
“With ballots already printed voting will take place in the constituency,” he says.
