The opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) party, has emphatically stated that they have no confidence in the electoral commission for Sierra Leone as well as the judiciary.

It could be recalled that prior to the casting of votes on June 24, 2023, the leader and presidential candidate of APC Dr. Samura Kamara called for the immediate resignation of the Chief electoral commissioner, Mohamed Konneh and all other commissioners.

Dr. Kamara pointed out that he doesn’t trust Mr. Konneh and his commissioners, and therefore called for a ‘neutral’ and independent body to conduct the elections.

He stated that, in the first place Konneh was not qualified to occupy such position as he had failed to resign from public office one year leading to his appointment as Chief Electoral Commissioner, something which made the main opposition, APC to vehemently oppose.

However, Mr. Konneh refused to heed APC’s calls for resignation, and with the intervention of the international community pleading for sanity the elections went ahead. Kamara, a day to the polls, called on his supporters across the country to come out ‘in numbers’ and vote for him. And there was huge turnout in polling stations observed by Africa24. But there were also huge concerns of irregularities, ballot stuffing, stopping opposition party agents from accessing polling centres, according to many observers.

On the outcome of the presidential results announced by Mr. Konneh on June 27, APC , however; challenged the results of June 24 polls that controversially declared incumbent President Julius Maada Bio as a winner by 56.17 % of the votes.

And which placed Bio’s stiffest challenger, Dr. Samura Kamara, with 41.16% of the votes cast.

In a press statement after the declaration of electoral commission final results for all positions contested for (councilors, mayors, MPs), the APC has made it emphatically clear that they are not going to serve in the governance of the re-elected President Julius Maada Bio.

In a latest press statement, an excerpt of the press note reads: “The All People’s Congress (APC) hereby informs the general public that the Party shall not go to court over the disputed 24th June, 2023 polls because the APC has had a recurrent bad experience relating to the lack of impartiality and competence of the Sierra Leone Judiciary to provide redress for violations of electoral laws, processes and mandates.”

Amongst other institutions, it further claims, as you [Sierra Leoneans] have all witnessed during the course of the June 24 elections, the behaviour of the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL), the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) and the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) have confirmed this position.

The statement said even more troubling, as in the above-mentioned institutions, the Judiciary of Sierra Leone (JSL) has demonstrated a relentless commitment to injustice borne out of an unbridle partisan loyalty.

This, lack of faith in the courts, has also been raised by the wider public, several national and international observers and our development partners, the statement further claims.

Unassigned Cases

The APC party has further observed that most of their complaints have never been treated with the seriousness they deserved.

‘’Following the 2018 elections, the APC filed petitions at the Bo and Kenema High Court Registries, against 33 SLPP elected MPs on a number of issues ranging from dual citizens to election violence. The said matters were never heard,’’ its piece reads in part.

However, at that same time, it added, the SLPP petitions against our MPs were heard by the same judiciary and a controversial ruling was made in favour of the SLPP-cancelling those elections.

The opposition party reflected on the past traumas its members had suffered under the hands of SLPP-Paopa’s government. APC’s latest statement said: “Instead of ordering a rerun for the cancelled elections and the vacant seats, as provided by section 147 of the Public Elections Act 2012 and rule 45 sub-rule 3 of the Election Petition Rules 2007,(both provisions having now been repealed) the Court turned itself into a rogue electoral commission by replacing our ten APCs elected Parliamentarians with SLPP candidates who were a distance away runners-up in those elections.’’

The red sun guys claim in the case of the petition relating to Constituency 110 in the Western Area, where the runner up was a National Grand Coalition candidate, (not an SLPP candidate) the Court ordered a re-run in the hope that the SLPP will win the seat.

In April 2018, the APC sought redress against malpractices in the presidential elections of that year.

In this instance, they said the Chief Justice delayed assigning the case until three years later. Even with this administrative abuse of powers to assign, the Chief Justice assigned the case to himself, presided over same, wrote the judgment himself and disposed of the matter by throwing it out of court, the note further stated.

Highlighting other instances of them being unjustly treated, other high profile political cases, they allege, which the Chief Justice refused to assign to judges include:

On the 3rd January 2019, the Sierra Leone Bar Association (SLBA), filed an application to the Supreme Court challenging the processes and procedures relating to the establishment of the Commissions of Inquiries (COI), the application was never listed for hearing;

On 21st May 2019, Hon. Osman Abdulai Timbo and others filed a Supreme Court Application on Section 78(2), and various other provisions of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone on the timeline within which parliamentary elections petitions could be heard and determined in the High Court. This matter was never assigned.

In May 2019, Alhaji Kemoh Sesay and others v. Attorney General and others cases were filed under the supervisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court challenging the commencement of the COI by the Commissioners without any Rules having been established according to section 150 of the Sierra Leone Constitution.

On 21st day of February 2020, another Supreme Court application relating to section 78(4) and various provisions of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone on the timeline within which Parliamentary Elections petitions appeal could be heard and determined in the Court of Appeal. This matter was never assigned.

On 7 June 2023, APC and Lansana Dumbuya filed a case against the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) and The Chief Electoral Commissioner, seeking the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone to produce the disaggregated voter register and to comply with provisions of the Public Elections Act 2022. This matter has not yet been assigned.

On 12 June 2023, Mr. Patrick John and the PMDC Party filed an application on the qualification of Mohamed Konneh to serve as the Chief Electoral Commissioner; it was never assigned.

It should be also noted that owing to its monumental failure to dispense justice fairly, the Judiciary is endeavouring to hoodwink the public and the International Community by claiming that they have listed more APC cases than any other party. We would like to highlight the fact that these cases being referred to relate to those involving APC members only. When it comes to disputes involving the APC and the SLPP, the rules are different.

We would not have ended up in this unpleasant chapter of the country’s democratic decline, particularly this electoral tragedy, if, for example, the Chief Justice had assigned to impartial judges the case relating to the conduct of ECSL and qualification of the Chief Electoral Commissioner.

As all this happens, and while the country seems to be in limbo. The million dollar question, on the lips of many Sierra Leoneans giving the fact that the main opposition APC does not have trust and confidence in ECSL and the Judiciary, is what next is the party’s position.