By Umaru Fofana
It’s almost exactly six months to the day when Sierra Leone returns to the polls. 24 June 2023 will be the sixth time, since the end of the war in January 2002, when Sierra Leoneans will be holding a general election – four of them presidential and legislative (2002, 2007, 2012 and 2018) and two local council polls held separately in 2004 and 2008.
Since then, the local council elections have been conducted alongside the presidential and legislative ballot, raising a whole gamut of issues of its own in view of the fact that local councils should last for four years. Citing funding constraints to conduct two nationwide elections one year apart, a law has just been passed to align all the nationwide elections after every five years. It makes sense because that was becoming de facto but not de jure.
In the last 20 years since the war ended, power has changed hands from the SLPP to the APC and back to the SLPP, the two political parties that have dominated the country’s politics since independence in 1961; barring the military coups of1967, 1992 and 1997.
While Sierra Leoneans should pat themselves on the back for changing governments through the ballot box, it has not all been honky dory. It is a shame that our elections have been characterized by bigotry which has occasioned hate which itself has bred violence. The wrong use of social media in more recent years has exacerbated matters.
The cycle of violence has bedeviled our body politic as much as it has befuddled many. Sadly, it is often caused by politicians who lead or aspire to lead us. What an irony! The hope is that they will prove us wrong next year.
I am writing this article from a conference organised by the sons and daughters of Kono to chart the way forward for the development of the district. The opening ceremony included a performance by children, some as young as five years, singing for peace to reign before, during and after the 2023 elections.
It is a befitting call not least because it was made in a district that has witnessed so much violence due to its status as a swing and bellwether district in the politics of Sierra Leone. But the call is also poignant because it came from children who reminded the adult audience and players that should the peace be disturbed, young people stood to suffer the most. Who would contest that?!
Just when we turn the curve into the New Year, it will all be politics and about politics. While the incumbent president will be busy criss-crossing the country to campaign, albeit under the guise of commissioning one project or another, the opposition will be busy with “sensitization”, a euphemism for illegal political campaigning.
Political parties, especially in the opposition, will be rocked by internal wrangling occasioning violence or legal challenges for one action or inaction, or another. That may not be the least surprising. But it is bound to be more fractious this time. Reason?
With the reintroduction of the Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system, preparing the list of a party’s parliamentary candidates in each district could be thorny and volatile. It is bound to be thornier and more volatile in the opposition, the reason for which is not difficult to decipher: there is no state power to use as a sweetener.
Now, already there is a civil war within the country’s largest opposition party – the APC. That should not surprise anyone. It has always happened in the politics of Sierra Leone that when a party is in opposition, and doesn’t have the resources and authority that power brings, bickering deepens and widens.
The challenge to Ernest Bai Koroma’s leadership of the APC in the lead up to the 2007 elections is all too familiar. That which bedeviled the SLPP party in the run up to the 2018 elections is even more familiar because it is more recent.
Often the reasons for wrangling within an opposition party disappear when the party is in power. Not because the democracy deficit that causes such evaporates. Rather, because the party has state power – chiefly jobs or the use of state institutions – to use as a dangling decoy to compromise or coerce the potential challengers or “trouble makers”. In a country where jobs are few and far between, for the opposition that magic wand is absent. So the edges fray and tempers flare and reasoning and pacifism get thrown out of the window.
As always, the police will prove as key as the political parties in ensuring peaceful elections. Young people, whose interests should be paramount for those canvassing for vote, will sadly be the tool to be used to cause trouble.
With the APC and SLPP expected to dominate as always, it will be interesting to see the political horse-trading that happens as we approach June 2023. What alliances will the smaller parties form with which of the major parties?
But crucially, who will be the APC’s presidential candidate and running-mate? Who will be the running mate of the SLPP standard bearer and president, Julius Maada Bio?
In the APC, Dr Samura Kamara seems to be the man to beat. But with a court case against him, who knows which way that will pan out. If he is convicted and disqualified from running, what will be the reaction from his party and supporters? Already, many are waiting in the wings with the sacked former vice president, Samuel Sam-Sumana, waiting lurking with his key trump card being his home and bellwether district of Kono.
If Dr Kamara does get nominated as the party’s standard-bearer, who will be his running-mate? A woman, a Christian (when he is also Christian), a southeasterner, a westerner or what? These are very crucial considerations for the wooing of votes.
Often people take for granted that the sitting vice president remains on the ticket when the boss is running again. But it has not been that straightforward in Sierra Leone. In 2002, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah ditched his vice president Dr Albert Joe Demby for his Attorney General Solomon Berewa. And in 2012, it took some very serious compromise and arm-twisting – perhaps blackmail – for President Ernest Bai Koroma to continue with his vice president, Sam-Sumana. So much so that just after their reelection, the number two man was a lame duck in all but name. And his subsequent controversial sacking probably came as no surprise.
But even in opposition no defeated presidential candidate of the major parties, has retained his running-mate. Ernest Bai Koroma replaced Abubakarr Jalloh in 2007 after their ticket was rejected in 2002. And Julius Maada Bio chose another running-mate in 2018 after his failed bid five years earlier. Although it has to be said that Dr Kadie Sesay with whom he had run in 2012 became gravely ill. Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, the current vice president, was the replacement. And if Dr Samura Kamara gets his party’s ticket, he is unlikely to retain Chernor Maju Bah aka Chericoco.
Talking about Juldeh Jalloh, there have been rumours swirling around, not least lately, that he is being considered for the boot. This points to the not-too-obvious signs that the ruling party also has its own civil war. It is not as evident as it is in the APC because of the reason I mentioned earlier – the trappings of state power which the party wields.
Those being touted to be being considered for the Bio ticket, range from the bizarre to the ridiculous. Some of them are so far-fetched that naming them is a big risk.
That risk is not only about getting the names wrong. It is also that if Juldeh gets replaced, it will anger and alienate a massive and crucial voting block – the Fullahs – which could have a knock-on effect at the polls. Some SLPP supporters or even members argue that Chericoco will be replaced without consequence, or that the replacement for Juldeh will also tick a crucial box to get numbers.
While we wait for that, if it ever happens, it is worth pointing out that replacing a defeated running-mate is not the same as replacing a sitting Vice President. And I am yet to know of a voting block outside the traditional north and southeast, which is as crucial as the Fullah vote.
An exciting time awaits us in 2023. May it all be peaceful! Happy New Year.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (23/12/22)
