At the headquarters of the All People’s Congress (APC) party on Wednesday 23rd April, 2024 the APC Co-chair, Dr. Kaifala Marah and his eminent colleagues representing the party in the Tripartite Committee briefed the leadership and members of the party on recent developments on the tripartite electoral review.
He calls for a solemn call to all to exercise restraint in not pre-empting the outcomes of the Committee’s examination exercises.
According to Dr. Marah the United States and the European Union had committed to helping in the implementation of the Tripartite Committee’s proposed recommendations.
All things being equal, he said, the work of the Committee will end on 19th June 2024, pointing out that it is left with the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) only to comply with the submission of a list of documents requested by the Committee.
In the main time, he said, that all documents requested for from other key stakeholders in the management of elections in the country including NCRA, Statistics-Sierra Leone, SLP, RSLAF, ONS and PPRC had been received.
He assured that Committee members who had been sub-divided into groups to research aspects of election laws, institutional reforms and elections management are dedicated to serving their conscience and the country.
And which is why, he indicated, all decisions reached by the Committee are by consensus.
He maintained that the responsibility assigned to him and his colleague representatives of the APC party is a professional one and requires thoroughness so as to be able to decipher and dissect the possible lacunas in the review process.
He said him and his colleagues are in constant touch with the APC party in order to keep the party’s leadership and members at breast with developments as a way of avoiding misinformation about what is derived from the work of the Committee.
But according to Dr. Marah, certain people are not letting them focus on the job assigned to them by the party leadership but are instead pushing for a pre-emption of the outcomes of the Committee.
Even when they are yet to conclude the examination of the issues of concern to the Committee as outlined in its Terms of Reference (ToR), he warned that reaching at such a pre-mature conclusion.
“We will catalogue our findings and the findings will inform our recommendations,”
He went on to caution party members and citizens:
“Let us not pre-empt the Committee’s recommendations outcomes; let us go on with the review; let us not do the examinations; let us take a holistic look at everything. You will be appropriately informed of all developments and at the end of the day,”
He maintained that this position is the position of the APC party, the position of the party’s leadership and the positions of Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara and Hon. Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah.
“In this regard, we are craving the indulgence of everyone to exercise patience,” he stated, noting that the Committee has started work on a strong footing with a firm belief and determination, “to work for God and country,” he said, pointing out, “this work is about our democratic credentials as a country and we have to do it, not only for the present generation, but for our next generation. We must get this process right,” he affirmed.
His message was clear and straightforward: “We will not preempt the outcome of the examination. If we do, we would be doing so at the detriment of the nation; we would have traded the confidence and trust of our international partners and moral guarantors and we would be destroying the good works we have been charged to do.”