By Ibrahim Karim Bangura (Tanko)

The civil society consortium on community accountability and service delivery has called for peace amid the growing tension in the country.

On Monday 18th June 2024, over sixty civil society organizations across the country updated journalists regarding the massive rumours doing the rounds on some unidentified protesters whose upcoming demonstration are being labeled by the CSOs as “faceless protest.”

The CSOs had the tension-calm call at the Sierra Palm Hotel, Aberdeen Beach in Freetown.

Speaking during the session, the Chairman of CSO on service delivery, William B. M. Sao-Lamin said the tripartite committee is one of the outcomes of the Bintumani Unity Agreement which has made it very clear that the Constitution of Sierra Leone is sacrosanct and so nothing should be done outside the scope of the constitution. Noting that the terms of reference (TOR) have made it very clear that they should engage in discussions making recommendations for electoral reviews for future polls and their work is not to audit the 2023 elections but to examine them including the previous elections so that they can recommend on the best way to transmit data and announce further elections’ results.

“APC has participated in this process for six months, and only a few days before its conclusion, they now call for boycott and it’s believed, it will deprive the country and Sierra Leoneans of the very progressive reforms that the committee and the experts have worked on for six months. The ECSL commission appeared before the committee as posted by ECSL on their information page.

Why did the APC not ask them all the questions during the deliberation process but had to send a separate letter again to delay the process?”

“And we are only expecting elections come 2028,” he said.

Komrabai Alusine Kamara, Northern Regional coordinator said the tripartite committee has no power to overturn the outcome of June 24, 2023 elections in the country, adding that the Supreme Court only has the mandate to overturn election results in Sierra Leone. “Any grievances regarding electoral outcomes should be followed by due legal process, including a recourse to the Supreme Court as outlined in section 45(2) of paragraph a, b, and the timeline for Sierra Leone’s next general election is scheduled in 2028,” he said.

According to the global coordinator, Moses Mambu highlighted their key observations on the intervention of the international community.

He said the mandate of the committee was to review the 2007 elections, the 2012 elections, the 2018 elections and the June 2023 for positive recommendations that will guide succeeding elections and the focus of the committee was to do electoral reform but not for President Bio to be replaced.

“The United State Government provided a sum of $ 1.5 million and part of the money was set to embark on community and stakeholders’ engagement on the expectation and outcome of the tripartite community for community ownership and participation.

“Though the money was said to be given to NDI, IRI, and IFES to fast-track the project, but up till now we have noticed that nothing has been done and this has not helped the process in anyway,” he claimed.

In an interview with Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad, they said the tripartite committee must focus on a win-win solution at least to foster peace and stability between SLPP and APC in the country.

However, inhabitants in Freetown are deeply worried over the likelihood of an unfortunate situation, but some are hopeful for a positive outcome of the committee’s recommendations. But many are criticizing the integrity of the selective civil societies that are deeply questioning the status of the tripartite committee.