By Umaru Fofana
The main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party held their national delegates’ conference over the weekend. Like the ruling All People’s Congress party did earlier in the year it was very peaceful and well organised. It coincided with my being in Bo for something different. So even though I did not attend the opening and voting sessions, indications were that it was all quite quiet and passed off peacefully. The nation had been put on tenterhooks ahead of the opening with some semi-official statements that there would be a military invasion and takeover of the city and its neighbouring Kenema. It proved as unnecessary as it sounded alarming. A complete damp squib it turned out to be! When I briefly visited the conference centre in the evening of Saturday as names of delegates were being called out shortly before voting was to start, I noticed a palpable sense of tension in the air even if the process was orderly and relaxed. That is a tension emanating from internal democracy within the party. There were no significant accusations or allegations of the delegates’ list having been tampered with or doctored even if there was complaint that five delegates from Kenema were barred from taking part in the process because of the controversy that had preceded the convention. That can probably be understood in view of the election that had been conducted in some constituencies which were later challenged by some aggrieved members who went to the Political Parties’ Registration Commission. You can only hail the decision by aggrieved members of the party to have used law and order means as opposed to violence or any other coercive method. And this is where the organising committee and the outgoing executive especially its Chairman John Benjamin must be praised whatever the misgivings anyone in the party may have about him. Some people in Benjamin’s position would have done all things possible to subvert the process if only to ensure their own candidate won. He did not do that. He let the will of the people be manifested. It is somehow encouraging that the two main parties’ conventions have been held so peacefully and it gives one the impression some peace seems to be creeping into their internal system, at least on convention days. What remains of serious concern is the lead-up to these conventions and the internal democratic systems that operate therein. I will come to the All People’s Congress party in a moment. It was refreshing that the SLPP convention was contested – at least for top leadership level of the party. And all those who withdrew from the contest did so at their own individual or collective volition after they had been nominated and after it had become apparent that they would lose once the top position had been decided. They were not coerced or talked out of their intentions by someone concerned that they or their candidates might lose. And this is perhaps the biggest lesson the APC should learn to improve their internal democracy when it comes to voting for party executives and when deciding at primaries which the party’s constitution allows can be done through SELECTION in lieu of ELECTION. There is no alternative to a competitive election process in determining those who should lead a party. It may be happening in China but that does not make it right. We are a democracy. We cannot have system that calls for universal adult suffrage yet we make mockery of it by suppressing people’s right to vote and be voted for within a political party. Political parties must have an internal system that allows its members the free will to choose who they wish. After all that is perhaps as crucial as the popular national voting system. If the political parties that stand any chance of winning an election decide to breach internal democracy by selecting their candidates fraudulently who end up being voted for by national electorate the bad seed would have been sowed at the political party level. This makes it compelling that our parties must be democratised and brought in line with our national constitution. At the SLPP convention, the determination by candidates to exercise their right some against all odds, is commendable. The decision by the leadership to allow them to contest and not coerce them to step down for one or the other is absolutely laudable. However there were certain things about the process that must be highlighted for corrective measures in the future if the internal democracy within the SLPP is to be improved. Like President Ernest Bai Koroma did when he criticised Solomon Berewa for unduly using state institutions in 2007 but ended up doing himself last year, supporters of Julius Maada Bio faulted Koroma’s dominance of state structures in the 2012 election but ended up doing just some of that. I noticed some Double Dutch ahead of the SLPP conference. Some Bio supporters, in the majority in Kenema and Bo, dominated the party’s offices with photographs of their candidates while there was none of the rival candidate Allie Bangura and his team of candidates. I was shocked and surprised to have read in the Unity Newspaper, the official mouthpiece of the party, an endorsement of one of the candidates for leadership, namely Chief Somanoh Kapen. Forget about fairness and professionalism in journalism that was a mark of breakdown and discipline in the party. The result of the weekend’s election was far short of a landslide. 27 votes handed victory to the chief. No one can fault the result I know. Even one vote could have decided the winner. But the closeness of the contest should concern those in the SLPP that their party is split right down the middle. It is difficult to determine the exact numbers of who voted for whom from which party of the country. But it will not be too far from the truth that Chief Kapen won because he was endorsed by Bio and in view of his popularity in the southeast the chief won because of the delegates from that part of the country. Despite being disliked by a huge section of the party mostly in the northwest but certainly some of them in the southeast. The defusing thing though is that both candidates for chairmanship are northerners. Otherwise it would have opened up inside the SLPP the divide between southeast and northwest that is so pervasive in the country’s body politic. But even that has not entirely saved the party. The chief did very badly in the northwest, the place where the SLPP is in dire need of a breakthrough. And that is where lies the strength of the defeated candidate, Allie Bangura. This surely must be music to the ears of the All People’s Congress party who can consolidate their northwest bases unless Ambassador Bangura is not alienated as was felt by some of those who lost in the contest for flag-bearer in 2011. Back to the issue of internal party democracy which is very crucial for any country’s governance system. A political party that detests contests has the tendency to transplant non-election elections into the general body politic. When contests become entrenched within a political party healthy competition at the state level is almost guaranteed. The opposite brings about a reversal in the broader scheme of things. Since elections are happening in the SLPP for their national executive, it will be more helpful for them to improve on their voting system. At the 2011 convention which saw Maada Bio emerge as the party’s flag-bearer, more votes were cast against him than in his favour. A second ballot system should be enshrined should any candidate fail to secure half the total number of votes cast. Internal party disciplinary mechanism must be guaranteed for any pre-convention violent conduct which should ensure fairness and transparency with an appeals process. Now that the convention is over, a new executive elected, and Bio has stepped down as flag-bearer however belatedly, the main opposition party must now take its rightful position and start to do the job that is in the interest of the people of Sierra Leone by constructively holding the government to account. There are too many things to tend to for any serious party to continue to bicker while the government tinker. © Politico 20/08/13
