By Ragan M. Conteh
Whilst addressing the usual weekly government press conference yesterday, the Minister of Information and Civic Education, Chernor Bah has insisted that the work of the Tripartite Committee is sacred and that citizens should not preempt the outcome of its findings.
He said their role as a committee is to review the June 24 general elections, look at the previous general elections and put together recommendations for future elections.
He took his time to explain the terms of reference which includes the examination of the June 24, 2023 general elections results, look at previous elections results, look at the tallying and announcement of elections results, look at procedures and certification and publication of results, look at data migration from the NCRA and how it get to do with ECSL arrangements, look at reports and recommendations of the various elections observer missions, example the EU, Carter Center among others, look at the electoral laws, like the Public Elections Act of 2022 and all other laws that have to do with elections business, look at electoral redress mechanisms which have to do institutional profile of some institutions of ECSL and to engage the security forces among others.
He said they’ll also have to make recommendations after the findings of the June 24 general elections, whether some people were involved in undermining democracy, and therein make recommendations to the president.
Meanwhile, the opposition All People’s Congress (APC), Co- Chair of the tripartite committee, Dr. Kaifala Marrah outlined numerous reasons for the setting up of the tripartite committee, which border on the disagreement of the June 24 general elections outcome including concerns facing the implementation of some of the resolutions including the payment of backlog to Members of APC Parliamentarians, dropping of political cases, removal of political prisoners, and reintegration of political asylum seekers into the country.
On his part, the Co-Chair representing the government, Dr. Emmanuel Gaima made it very clear that there will be no re-run of the June 24 general elections.
He said there have been elections reviews before now, and this was born out of the current tripartite committee.
He said the fact that the president decided to dismantle his committee indicates how committed he is to the process.
He said the international community didn’t force them to set up this committee but was out of the wisdom of the government to make such arrangements.
He said that they will invite the ECSL but they can’t force them to do otherwise.
He also made it clear that the committee is guided by the constitution and when once the ECSL has announced an election results, no committee has the right to overturn it.
The UN Resident Coordinator, Seraphine Wakana on the other hand, said they’re pleased with the achievements so far made by the committee and pledged to continue to provide support to the process.