By Asmieu Bah
The long awaited November elections have finally come and gone and once more the country is dusting itself from the most exhausted, fierce and vilifying campaign it has ever seen. The elections have returned incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma back to State House to serve his second and final term.
Prior to the announcement of the results on that Friday, the country was like a pregnant woman waiting to deliver after nine months of a painful pregnancy. The baby was finally given birth to when Christiana Thorpe broke the silence by announcing that Koroma APC had secured 58% of the votes automatically saving him and the country from a run-off. No sooner the result was announced than the Chief Justice swore in the newly re-elected President in front of journalists, members of the diplomatic corps and domestic and foreign observers. Once more Sierra Leone ended another epoch election in the country’s post-independence era, making her a beacon of democracy on the African continent. In some countries elections have led to rebel wars and the total collapse of the state. Here we could say for sure that it was peaceful though the opposition is still refusing to give the elections a clean bill of health.
The announcement of the result no matter the outcome was a sigh of relief for the country. The country was in tenterhooks. The opposition has finally come to terms with the winning party. It took them over a week to congratulate the winner, citing electoral fraud, malpractices and ballot-stuffing among others.
It is but a feather to the caps of both President Koroma and Brigadier (Retired) Julius Maada Bio when the two gentlemen met at State House to chat a new dawn. The olive branch that was extended by the government was received by the opposition.
There were many firsts during the last elections: This was the first time since the end of the war that the country’s security forces controlled security matters solely without any external support. It was the first time in the country’s political history the chief returning officer of NEC was doing two terms.
The last election also saw for the first time the country using the biometric system of registration, making it one of the first countries in Africa to use this modern system. This last point is an improvement in the country’s electioneering process.
Now the government has begun its second term though we are yet to know the composition of the next cabinet. No doubt new names will emerge to fill in different positions ranging from ministerial to head of Parastatal and ambassador and high commissioner overseas. Political deals will be done as to how the spoils are to be shared more so when we witnessed mass defections.
One thing we cannot deny is the fact that the election did create divisions in the country. The Northwest went to APC while southeast went to SLPP even though the incumbent succeeded in making inroads in opposition bastions. The opposition failed to make impact especially in the north which is the region President Koroma hails from and a stronghold of his party.
The election raised ethnic tensions. For instance when the results were announced we heard songs being sung in one of the country’s ethnic languages in support of the APC as against the opposition SLPP. As a Sierra Leonean I found that very disturbing. Had the songs been sung in our lingua franca Creole, that would have sent a message of nationhood and unity in diversity.
Now that the elections are over it behoves all of us to forget about parochial and political interests and seek a new dawn for the country.
In a press release issued by the opposition, they threatened a boycott of parliament and local councils. Again this is an unhealthy situation for a fledgling democracy like ours. Mediators should bring the two parties to a round table and broker a peaceful settlement of the impasse. But the situation begs the question as to how effective our judicial system is. After the announcement many people misunderstood the statement of Christiana Thorpe when she said that whosoever had issues with the result should seek redress. It has been meant to be that even if one seeks redress the case will stay in the court room to gather dust on the shelves.
The SLPP should have a rethink of their decision to boycott parliament and local councils; such an action will only create more division, acrimony and tension in our country, which they themselves know is not good for Sierra Leone. In as much as we are calling on the opposition to accept the result, the President should match his winning speech with actions by extending an olive branch to them. Even though nearly one million citizens voted against him he is now the President of all irrespective of party, region and ethnicity.
This is what is happening in civilised democracies. In his victory speech in 2008 then President-elect Barrack Obama said this to the American people in Chicago: ‘’ And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too’’.
We want to see the same in our country.
Asmieu Bah is a broadcast journalist working for the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation
© Politico 06/12/2012
