The All Peoples Congress (APC) in a press conference held in their party office at Railway Line on Thursday 7th October has called on NEC to behave like a democratic institution to allow democracy to grow in the country after the alleged changing of result in the just concluded Koinadugu elections.
The National Secretary General of the party Alhaji Osman Yansaneh said “We note with great concern that during these elections our polling agents caught staff of NEC directly tampering with results and altering them in favour of the governing Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). During the tally process for the Councilor for Ward 155, the ICT Staff tampered with the results for Station (I), at the MCA Primary School in Fumbakoro in favour of the SLPP. Also, the correct scores which were 049 for SLPP and 083 for APC for that Station, signed by NEC officials, polling agents and observers, were fraudulently entered by a NEC staff as 149 for SLPP, leaving the APC with the same 83 votes. This was what criminally inflated the SLPP Candidate’s votes by an extra 100.”
The Secretary General said this single fraudulent act saw the SLPP defeating APC by seven votes after they were in the lead with 96 votes. He said they produced the copies of the RRF signed by NEC officers and polling agents, which carried the same figures as those on the original copy in NEC’s custody, yet the presiding Commissioner, Edmond Alpha from the Southern Region who was sent to oversee elections in the North refused to make the necessary correction before making the provisional announcement of the results.
“Rather, he asked the APC to raise objections with the Commission which we did in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Commission on 5th October 2021. Regrettably, the Chairman ignored the evidence provided and went ahead on Wednesday, 6th October 2021 to confirm the fake results. This gives credence to the spate of institutionalized electoral fraud being perpetrated by a collusion of NEC officers and known SLPP operatives.”
He averred that they further noted that on Sunday 3rd October, 2021 during the tally process for the District Council Chairman election in Kabala, the Assistant Director of Operations – Northern Region, Mr. Paul M. Damba was caught tampering with results in favour of the SLPP when he criminally changed the SLPP result from 069 to 169 for Polling Centre Code 06096, MCA Primary School, Alkalia (Station 1). In another instance, at the same Polling Centre and location (Station 3), the NEC Officers swapped the figures. Instead of recording APC 122 and SLPP 088, they recorded APC 088 and SLPP 122. This discovery forced Commissioner Edmund Alpha to correct the numbers and Mr Damba, the electoral officer was dismissed from the electoral process pending further investigations.
Alhaji Osman Yansaneh called on Sierra Leoneans and the international community that have invested so much in trying to nurture and sustain democracy in Sierra Leone. A lot of resources and effort have also gone into reforming NEC to strengthen its capacity to conduct credible elections.
“Regrettably, what the Commission has demonstrated is the highest degree of electoral fraud that renders the entire electoral process irrelevant if NEC officials can change results with impunity. This will not only undermine confidence in the ability of NEC to conduct credible elections, it will also threaten the peace and stability of this country.”
The party Secretary General said they are demanding an immediate recount of the votes for Ward 155 based on the NEC certified RRF’s be conducted with a view to making sure that they reflect the will of the Koinadugu electorate.
Dr Richard Conteh said he was surprised that NEC can stoop so low in discrediting the commission just to make sure that the ruling party wins the election.
He said since they stood up to the Commission they have seen winning in Constituency 110 and now in Kabala. He said they will be ready again for the Kono and Kenema elections next month as every election conducted must give the people their choice.