Post a comment
There was a very frenzied display of raw human emotions last Saturday in Kailahun Town as antagonistic factions of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) Women’s Wing battled for the wing’s leadership.
Unlike the previous day’s SLPP Young Generation leadership elections conducted in Moyamba Town in the Southern Province that went peacefully and smoothly, the one to elect the party’s Women’s Wing leadership in Kailahun Town in the Eastern Province on Saturday 27th November, 2021 was literally red hot. So heated was the atmosphere that the party had to cancel the election.
What threw the entire election into disarray was the fact that the incumbent Madam Fatmata Sawaneh and her vociferous supporters who clearly were in the majority were not going to allow any manipulation of the voting process to deny their candidate victory.
Pandemonium erupted with Madam Fatmata Sawaneh’s supporters in tears at the naked attempt to defraud their candidate forcefully taking over the hall and in a military style, scattering chairs, tables and anything that could be overturned. The SLPP Chairman and Secretary General were reportedly assaulted and had to be whisked oud of the hall by security personnel.
Blame was generally cast on the SLPP National Chairman, the National Secretary General and the wife of President Bio, First Lady Fatima Bio for tilting the playing field in favour of the candidate of their choice in the four-horse race by allegedly openly campaigning in the hall, and dishing out United States Dollars to delegates to vote in favour of Fatima’s preferred candidate.
An aggrieved Fatmata Sawaneh supporter speaking openly made bold to defy Fatima Bio and to challenge her to supporting another candidate against Fatmata Sawaneh who, she said, has suffered for the party when it was in the political wilderness during the days in opposition. She maintained that they will not allow Fatima Bio and the JMB Women’s Wing of the party to choose for them. She further warned that if Fatima Bio does not take her hands off their politics, they would ensure that her husband becomes a one term President like Donald Trump.
Allegations of bribes of USD500 for delegates to vote for the Fatima Bio’s candidate were made by the women supporting Fatmata Sawaneh who disclosed that if the votes had been counted, there was a possibility of Fatmata Sawaneh losing due to manipulation of the election.
Speaking in the convention hall, Madam Fatima Bio maintained that there was no hate for each other in the party. She pointed out that those who had created the confusion wanted the blame to be placed on her head. She disclosed that a lot happened on the high table that was not supposed to happen.
According to The Exclusive, she furthered that since it was her one vote that had caused the confusion; she called for the party to cancel the Women’s Leader election. “People are tired and want to go home,” she said, as she repeated her call for the election to be postponed to an other date.
Meanwhile, reports were that President Bio who is the SLPP Leader, after been informed of the rumpus over the election, called the National Secretary General, Napoleon Koroma Esq. to cancel the election.
