By Ragan M. Conteh
Due to the failure by the authority of the APC to protect the people’s votes in 2023 and the failure of non-accountable of the people’s votes, some grassroots have informed this medium that they might rejected the ongoing registration/verification process.
They said they are yet to hear anything from the opposition All People’s Congress authorities on the possibility to holding re-run elections that may sail them to a victory.
They said they are mad over slow pace of electoral justice into the controversial June 24, 2023 general elections.
A trader from Allen Town, Fatmata Savage said, nobody can guarantee the wining chance of the APC in 2028 if the 2023 elections accountability is swept under the carpet with no display of the results by polling stations across the country.
“Why our APC party stakeholders are salient about the electoral justice. Is there anymore hope for free and fair elections in Sierra Leone. Why a new membership registration within the party, ” she asked.
Savage said if such results couldn’t be released the country might experience another repeat of the same manner of conducting elections in the future.
“If we set precedent at this time, no leader will have the gut to divert peoples’ votes for his or her personal aggrandizement, ” Savage said.
Tamba Saidu Sesay, a board dealer at Calaba Town told this medium that, the country’s democracy is shrinking due to the flouting of the electoral laws and systems, he claimed.
“The country will only solve this one [our plight] if the future of our beloved nation is to be bright.”
He maintained that, the country is currently stagnating due to what he described as elections thievery, adding that the international and local observations missions had long ago discredited the 2023 elections described it as fraudulent.
Sesay said that the reason for the setting up of the Tripartite Committee was to look into the conduct of the elections for a fairness.
Momoh Kargbo of Shell New Road said, the reason they had wanted the 2023 elections to be investigated is to avoid a re-occurrence of electoral manipulation.
“We cannot proceed without telling the people about the reality of the 2023 general elections.” “We want to hear from Dr. Samura Kamara about the latest developments on the electoral justice moves being made, if any. We may want to know if there is any hope for the people of Sierra Leone, again?” he asked.
He said some of the APC party stalwarts have already described the 2023 elections as done and dusted which has angered more of grassroots and supporters of the party.
He said what has add more frustration to the existing problem is to see the party elders embarking on a commencement of the party’s registration/verification processes.
“I am beginning to think everything is over until 2028,” he stated.
Many of these supporters and grassroots members expressed similar sentiments and called for update on the electoral justice being trumpeted by Dr. Samura Matthew Wilson Kamara.
“We are not going to register until we get a clear knowledge about electoral justice push so far, ” many of them said.