By Marilyn King
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The Civil Society Consortium on Community Accountability and Service delivery during a press conference held on Tuesday 18th June 2024 at Sierra Palm hotel updated the Media about Civil Society Organizations Observations on the Work of the Tripartite Committee So Far.
The Consortium which is made up of over 100 Civil Society Organizations across the country is concern about the current political situation in the country with regards the work of tripartite committee and the expectation of certain set of Sierra Leonean.
Reading the press statement on behalf of the Consortium William B. M Sao-Lamin, Chairman: CSO Consortium on Community Accountability and Service Delivery said in addressing challenges of previous elections, a tripartite committee was instated which comprises of representatives from the government, the main opposition All People Congress (APC) and international community.
“It should be noted that:
The tripartite committee is one of the outcomes of the Bintumani Unity Agreement which made it very clear that the constitution of Sierra Leone is sacrosanct and nothing should be done outside the scope of the constitution.
The tripartite TOR made it very clear that they should engage in discussions and make recommendations for electoral reviews for future elections and their work is not to audit the 2023 elections but to examine them and previous elections so that they can recommend on the best way to transmit and announce election results.
Since the agreement has made the constitution sacrosanct and only the Supreme Court, as stipulated by the constitution, has the powers to order a rerun of elections, not a subcommittee born out of an agreement.
The tripartite committee does not have any mandate to recommend a rerun or the removal of any commissioners from the ECSL. It is these matters for the constitution of Sierra Leone to address, not a committee.
The APC has participated in this process for six months, and only a few days before its conclusion, they now want to boycott it and deprive Sierra Leone of the very progressive reforms that the committee and all the experts have worked on for six months.
The ECSL commission appeared before the committee as posted by the ECSL on their information page. Why did the APC not ask them all the questions during that time but had to send them a separate letter later?
From the ECSL responses to the letter by the APC team, it is very clear that the ECSL submitted all the documents they were asked for. Why then use the ECSL as an excuse for your failure to serve this nation and your party supporters?
Any grievances regarding electoral outcomes should be followed by due legal processes, including recourse to the Supreme Court as outline in S45 (2) Paragraph a, b, and the timeline for Sierra Leone’s next general election is scheduled for 2028.”
He went on to states that, the Civil Society Consortium on Community Accountability and Service delivery has closely followed the work and activities of the Committee since it inauguration in October 2023. On this note, the consortium will describe the work of the committee as a credible one. However, certain players has not been sincere and have been misleading the public on the objective, activity and scope of the committee. From our observation, these are some of the findings on the tripartite committee activities and processes:
Observations on the Committee activities of the Committee:
- It was observed based on it TOR, that the tripartite committee’s work does not involve re-running the 2023 elections and sis not make any recommendations that might warrant the re-run of the June 2023 elections.
- That the mandate of the committee was to review the 2007 election, the 2012 elections, the 2018 elections and the June 2023 for a positive recommendations that will guide succeeding elections.
- That the focus of the committee was on electoral reform and not on replacing President Julius Maada Bio’s current term in any way.
- That the Committee engaged various stakeholders across the country- traditional & religious leaders, local councilors, and political parties and political parties supporters, CSOs, media, etc. to discuss the work of the Committee and obtain feedback on how to strengthen our electoral systems in Sierra Leone.
- That each and every process and activity of the committee was inclusive and participatory
- That the committee was very clear and cautioned against misinformation on the activity of the committee that will caused misinformation leading to public confusion
Observations on some of the International Community:
It has been observed that some of the international community has been played double role with the two parties to the tripartite. That.is to say, different things have been said to the two different parties (the SLPP and the APC) and at the same time, different thing has been said to the general public which is undermining the peace and stability of the country.
It has been found out that the United State Government provided a sum of $ 1.5 million and part of that money was to embarked on community and stakeholders engagement on the expectation and outcome of the tripartite community for community ownership and participation. This money was contracted to NDI, IRI and IFES, but up till now we noticed that nothing has been done and this has not helped the process in anyway.
Observations on some of the Players (APC team) in the Committee:
It was observed that the APC team on the Committee has been constantly misleading their supporters and the general populace on the Scope, objectives, and activities of the committee which has raised tension and stability of the peace of the country
That the APC team of the Committee has been given wrong information and hope to their supporters and the general populace that there will be a re-run of the previous 2023 elections when they well know that there are procedure and regulations guiding elections in the country as outline in the Public Elections Act of 2012 and the 1991 constitution of Sierra Leone.
It is evident that Government has done a lot to engage the public on the sprite behind the setting up of the tripartite committee. However, the opposition APC party have done little or nothing to engage their supporters on the truth about the setting up of tripartite committee. Therefor the work of the committee is not take decision on the election or outcome of the election result. To that end we are calling on the international Committee, interreligious council, traditional leaders who are our moral guarantor to engage the opposition APC leadership and encourage them to come out clean by informing their supporters that there is going to be no other presidential election before 2028.
On this note, we are calling on all Civil Society organizations to be very firm and not to support any political party on this matter, but rather work within the framework of our national constitution (1991) make an observation and say the truth in all of these given the current situation of our country. We are calling on all Sierra Leonean to continue to be law abiding and work within the framework of the law at all time.
Finally, it should be know that the Tripartite Committee is not an Audit Committee, Statutory Committee and it is not binding by any law and it is not replacing the rule and regulation as prescribed by the 1991 constitution of Sierra Leone and the 2012 election Act, and as such it is just like any other committee that is set up to review the processes, procedures and mechanism used to conduct the 2007 election, 2012 election, 2018 election and 2023 elections.
The Civil Society Consortium on Community Accountability and Service Delivery will continue to monitor all the work, process and activities of the committee for full implementation and quality service delivery and accountability.
