By Asmieu Bah
Politics is the wheel around which everything revolves. These are the third general elections in the country since the war ended in January 2002. That figure does not include the two local council polls held in 2004 and in 2008. This is quite a colossal achievement considering what elections mean on our continent and immediately what follows an end of a civil war as brutal as ours.
In 2002 we put our newly-won peace to test – to ascertain whether the guns had indeed gone silent for good or just a temporary reprieve. We also wanted to know if the ex-combatants had preferred the ballot to the bullet, and how strong our fragile and fledging democratic state had become.
As a nation we went through all these tests, trials, tribulations and vicissitudes almost unscathed. The 2002 elections were acclaimed to have been conducted in a freer and fairer manner than the 1996 ones had been. The incumbent, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah swept the pools with a landslide victory. He employed his ‘’end the war’’ slogan as a ticket to achieve his victory, though the debate as to who really ended the war has rather incomprehensibly regained currency lately. To his credit it was Kabbah who did end the war not least because he was in charge at the time and he goaded the process. But several other factors may have led to Kabbah's landslide.
To start with, the opposition parties were in sixes and sevens – completely disorganised. Even the party that came second in the 1996 polls, the UNPP, could not muster support to maintain its second position. Its leader Dr John Karifa Smart was away. He was afraid to return home because of his alleged role as mentor to the notorious AFRC. As a result the party was unable to galvanise its support around a leader. Karefa was seen by many as a charismatic and shrewd politician.
Another issue that made Kabbah’s victory a smooth sail was the issue of finance. All the parties excluding the SLPP had a weak financial muscle to meet the financial obligations that a modern campaign needed. As it is now, as it was then in 2002, the incumbent governments had the state resources at its behest.
Thefinal point I think gave Kabbah a victory was the fact that most of the other political parties were unable to traverse the nook and cranny of the country to sell their ideas to the populace. The SLPP being the incumbent government was able to make its presence felt. It was evident that Kabbah was going to win the election by a landslide and, as it turned out, he won by around 70% thereby avoiding a run-off.
The country’s maturity was tested again in 2007. Writers and commentators are still wagging their tongues as to the outcome of that epoch-making election. For the first time in forty years the opposition landed a heavy blow on an incumbent party causing its dislodgement from State House. Like in 1967, the opposition APC defeated the incumbent SLPP, thanks to the son of the man they defeated in 1967, Sir Albert Margai.
The SLPP’s second defeat could be traced to 2005 when the party held its convention to elect its presidential flag bearer in the northern headquarters town of Makeni. They elected Vice President Solomon Berewa as against Charles Margai a former Internal Affairs Minister in the first Kabbah administration.
Disgruntled Margai splintered from the SLPP to form the PMDC. PMDC drew most of their support from south-eastern Sierra Leone, a region predominantly believed to be the bastion of the SLPP. His disgruntlement was so conspicuous that during the Presidential debate at Lagoonda one could sense his disdain for his late father’s party.
The PMDC became the king-makers giving Ernest an easy ride during the run-off elections. The SLPP almost ‘lay flat on the floor’ to beg Margai but it was too late to do a deal. Margai proclaimed his support for Ernest during his birthday party celebrations.
That singular action by the maverick politician changed the cause of history taking it to a direction not many would have thought. It was a shocking defeat to the SLPP and Vice President Berewa.
It is time again for elections and the country is bracing itself for another defining moment in its history, we are witnessing once more the battle between a powerful incumbent and a doggedly determined opposition, between two men who have tasted power and know what it means to dwell at State House – I mean Ernest Koroma and Julius
Maada Bio.
In 2009 the ruling APC endorsed Ernest Koroma just as the Democrats did a fortnight ago for Barrack Obama. The opposition SLPP, in 2011, after hotly contested primaries between nineteen aspirants, the former military junta leader Maada Bio emerged as the flag bearer.
We are less than sixty days to go to the pools. These elections, like those that preceded them, are going to put to test our state institutions – NEC, the SLP, the RSLAF and more. Sierra Leoneans are going to see the impartiality, or otherwise, of these institutions. They will know whether the police have the guts to execute operations without fear or favour. We shall also see if the police will be able to rise up above partisan politics. Donors and international observers are going to write in their post-election reports the way the police acquitted themselves.
Many a time the police have been accused of bias in handling political matters. The November pools will vindicate them or muddy their character yet again. It now behoves our police force to rise up to the challenge and protect the interest of the citizens as against that of any political party. In political science it is believed that ‘’governments come and go but the state remains’’.
There will be many firsts in this election. This is the first time a former head of state is standing as a presidential candidate. This is also the first time the country’s electoral commission is experimenting the biometric voter registration system, one way to reduce election fraud. It is a system that has been used in a few other countries
such as Gambia and Senegal in their recent elections and there has been no evidence faulting it. In Senegal the opposition touted the possibility of it not being fraud-proof but they did not show any evidence and they (opposition) won the elections anyway.
This is also the first time since the end of the war that our security forces – the police and the military – are single handedly securing the elections without any foreign troop presence in the country.
According to NEC ten political parties have satisfied the criteria to run in the November pools, though some parties are still bickering. The readjusted candidates' nomination fees have given many political parties that would have otherwise been left out of the race the opportunity to take part in the pools. The APC and the SLPP are trying to woo small parties in case there is a run-off.
Tensions are mounting. Cards are being turned up and down as if Poker has come to town. Night meetings are being held, political switches and criss-crosses are ongoing. The recent defection is that of the erstwhile ambassador to China Abdul Karim Koroma, who since his switching of support to the opposition SLPP, was a strong pillar in the APC. In the 70’s during the reign of Dr Siaka Stevens, AKK as he is fondly called, served as both Foreign and Education minister. He hails from the ruling APC stronghold of Tonkolili.
As all these political developments are unfolding one issue that has taken centre stage on my mind is the unity, or not, of our country amidst the North-western and south-eastern political divides. Some of our politicians have peddled ethnic and regional rhetoric all in the name of power. Some who had only taken Freetown as their place of birth are now going “home” to their people to say they too belong in that district or chiefdom. This tactic didn’t work well for
Momodu Koroma in 2007 when he ran on the presidential ticket of Solomon Berewa. I know for sure that in these elections many people will reject certain people not because they despise their party but because they only know them when elections are here.
The fate of many members of parliament hangs in the balance. Some voters in some constituencies are yearning for fresh blood and spirit. Absentee politicians will get off their expensive vehicles and come down from their towers and try to hobnob with the masses. This is the strength of democracy and the power of the voter to choose who should
represent them.
Elections have led to conflict in many African countries. And in some of them the mandate of the people was stolen from them. They were denied their inalienable right to choose their leaders, something that almost caused the fragmentation of those countries. Kenya in East Africa is a clear case in point where we saw the post-election violence that ensued between the two main tribes. The atrocities in Ivory Coast and Guinea are still fresh on our minds and should teach our electoral management bodies, our security forces, those in power and in the opposition and the various tribes who must tell inciters to go hang.
My piece will be incomplete without a mention of the media. They make or break a nation especially around election time. It has been propounded that journalists should be the instrument that afflicts the comforted and comfort the afflicted. However to note that in Sierra Leone today most media practitioners instead of afflicting the comforted – in this context I mean the ruling class – they have become the voice of the comforted leaving the masses or the afflicted
at the mercy and behest of the rulers. Politicians have dictated many front page stories and radio headlines, plucking away the judgement of editors. Politicians have set the agenda leaving the media in a confused and dumb state.
As we approach the elections we should be seeing the media analysing party manifestos for the masses to know who to cast their votes for. The Independent Media Commission has not been using its sledge hammer to bring to conformity those media practitioners who have erred and continue to do so. Have we not heard journalists making inflammatory and biased statements on radio? Or have we not read tasteless articles lacking in independence or objectivity?
What our media practitioners should know is that Kenyan journalists are facing the music in the Hague for their role in their country's post war election violence. Those who think they are smart and cunning should better have a rethink and try to claw back their long lost integrity.
As voters we are as confused as our power seekers. When you listen to their speeches and manifestos all you can sense is deceit and rhetoric. I normally ask if our politicians' aim is really to serve us or themselves or themselves and their families and cronies. Or is the answer not in fact clear. Good luck to all the folks are running for office. And may the voters cast their sacred ballot not based on how much they have been bribed or their ethnicity or some other
parochial considerations but rather to serve their conscience and the good of the nation.
