SLPP SENDS WARNING SIGNALS TO PRESIDENT. KOROMA: DEMOCRACY WAS MURDERED, SAYS SLPP DEPUTY LEADER On 17th November 2012, Sierra Leoneans voted for a new President, Parliament, Councilors, Mayors and Chairmen in a first of its kind multi-tier election. One year on since the official announcement of results, the main opposition party, the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) still maintains the elections “was a sham” and the entire process depicted “the death of democracy in Sierra Leone”. The Deputy Chairman of the party, Dr. Prince Alex Harding made those definitive assertions in an exclusive interview in his office at the party headquarters. “We did not lose the election. We were robbed as a people of our will. The whole thing became a sham and democracy was therefore murdered,” Dr. Harding stated. Reflecting on the 2012 elections and why his party failed to win, the party’s deputy chairman noted that two factors were responsible and he named them as; internal factor, referring to the structure, administration, organization and implementation of the party’s polices, and external factor, which he maintained was engineered by and well implemented by the All People’s Congress machinery. Qualifying his assertion that the election was a sham, he drew a number of instances which he said could not have occurred where the process was free, fair and transparent. He mentioned that even the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) party that went to bed with the APC complained about the missing votes of its Leader, Charles Margai. “How can a highly educated and experienced politician like Mr. Margai enter a polling booth and forget to vote for himself”, he questioned, and referred to such an allusion as “an insult to the intelligence and democratic credentials of Sierra Leoneans” noting also that such acts had a lot to tell about the whole process. According to Dr. Harding, these were some of the manifestations of “a well managed elections outcome”. He said the election had already been won well before the real exercise took place and that this was perfected by the changing of ballot boxes, deliberate inflation of voting figures. “It was clear that even staff of the National Electoral Commission and its Chief Commissioner were in league the APC party to create what turned out to be an unfortunate outcome of the results,’ he maintained. He therefore asserted, “We will continue to challenge that election results; whether our case is thrown out of court or not. For the very fact that the natural justice tells us that this is an illegal government, they don’t have the mandate of the people and therefore they are ruling against the wishes of this people,” Dr. Harding maintained. The SLPP Deputy leader stated that the will of the people to choose the leadership of the country were clearly manifested in the crowds and the mass of people that came out whenever their party’s candidate, Brigadier Julius Maada Bio was out campaigning. “I think that was what sent jitters through the spine of the leadership of the APC to do everything under the sun to rig that election. Delving into the dynamics and role of the internal factors that contributed to the SLPP loss of the elections, noted that in spite he is not aware of the party’s strategy at the time, what he can however state is that “there was an internal collusion of interests” between those charged to deliver the party and those agents of the APC who were busy conniving with the ruling party to deny the SLPP “its much deserved power”. He therefore maintained that as a party, the SLPP went into the 2012 elections “from a position of extreme weakness” noting, “that it was only due to God’s intervention that the SLPP was able to register a semblance of good voter percentage, but sadly, even that too was rigged”. He questioned, “Why do I say this?” Responding to his rhetorical question, he noted the leadership of the SLPP at the time was harboring a personal agenda against the wishes and will of the membership of the party. “When the leadership of any party harbors personal agenda especially thinking of becoming the next flag bearer, they will do everything possible for the party to lose,” he asserted, noting that this was exemplified by the past leader/ chairman who on the eve of our flag bearer election came out publicly that he will be contesting for the next flag bearer of the party. “That was when the cat was let out of the bag. So you can see why we were cheated not only by the Christian Thorpe-led NEC, we were also cheated internally in collusion with the external cheaters,” Dr. Harding said. The SLPP deputy chairman went on to note that NEC in collision with the APC party has perfected their own strategy twice and that twice they have succeeded. He however assured that this will not happen to the SLPP again. “They have done it twice. But I can assure you that we will never allow them again to undo us and therefore cheat democracy,” the SLPP Deputy Leader stated. Culled from Awoko Newspaper by Sayoh Kamara and Betty Milton
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 10:24:50 +0000
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