By Alfred B.Koroma (Editorial Consultant)

The Laws of the Land are very sacred and therefore must be upheld and respected at all costs.

But from all indications it seems clear that certain individuals have little or no iota of respect for the Laws of the Land.

The Constitution of the Republic of Sierra Leone makes provision for Electoral Commission and its functions.

According to the 1991 Constitution, the Electoral Commission shall be responsible for the conduct and supervision of the registration of voters for and of all public elections and referenda; and for that purpose shall have powers to make regulations by statutory instrument for the registration of voters, the conduct of Presidential, Parliamentary or Local Government elections and referenda.

From the explanation above, it is only the Electoral Commission that is charged with the mandate and responsibility to declare campaign for election of any type and by so doing all aspirants of political parties can move from place to another persuading and talking to people publicly by asking for their votes and erect bill boards, give hand-outs of candidates and the likes but that is not the case in the 2023 elections.

The first person to have violated the Electoral Laws is the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) strong-man Mohamed Gento Kamara who is vying for the position of Mayor of Freetown. He is the first person who displayed bill boards, gave hand-outs and started public campaign all over Freetown while ECSL is yet to announce date for all political campaigns and rallies.

Having seen the violation by the SLPP Mayoral aspirant, other political parties candidates vying for the same position were left with no other alternative but to follow-suit.

The question that people are asking is that, is it because Mohamed Gento Kamara is a strong-man in the ruling government that he cannot be brought to book for violating the Laws of the Land?

As a nation people must learn to set good precedents for Democracy to thrive and not ugly precedents, as governments come and go but precedents good or bad remains.

Why is it that the people of Sierra Leone are very quick to forget about the past, the former President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma was seriously accused of sacking his Vice President unlawfully which was another violation of the country’s 1991 Constitution to say the least.

Let’s think for a moment another government comes to power and do the same what will happen? Nobody is above the law and the law is a respecter of none, the Electoral Commission must act now or they are bound to fail or have failed already.

Shame on those violating the electoral laws.