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Sierra Leone’s main opposition party the All Peoples Congress (APC) party has today announced that they would not be pursuing legal action regarding the controversial June 24th, 2023 polls.
The decision stems from the party’s longstanding concerns about the impartiality and competence of the Sierra Leone Judiciary in addressing electoral violations and upholding the rule of law.
The APC had previously rejected the election results due to alleged discrepancies and irregularities in the tallying and verification processes.
The party claims that a comparison between the announced results by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) and its own tallies revealed significant inconsistencies and blatant voter fraud. However, the APC believes that seeking redress through the court system is futile, as they perceive the judiciary to be under the control of the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP).
According to the APC, the ECSL, Sierra Leone Police (SLP), and Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) demonstrated biased behavior during the June 24th elections, further reinforcing the party’s lack of confidence in the fairness of the judicial system.
“This lack of trust in the courts has been echoed by the public, national and international observers, as well as development partners.”
The APC’s concerns about the judiciary’s impartiality are based on a series of unresolved cases from previous elections.
The party highlights instances where its petitions against SLPP elected Members of Parliament were not heard, while simultaneously, SLPP petitions against APC MPs were given priority. The court’s controversial rulings resulted in the replacement of ten APC elected Parliamentarians with SLPP candidates. These incidents, along with other high-profile cases, have eroded the party’s faith in the judiciary’s independence and fairness.
The APC further accuses the Chief Justice of selectively assigning cases to judges, ensuring that only cases involving the APC are heard by judges who deliver what they deem as “captured judgments.”
The party asserts that the only way to restore faith in the judicial system is for the Chief Justice to resign and for an independent panel of judges from Commonwealth countries, with no political affiliation to Sierra Leone, to preside over the electoral violations case.
In light of these circumstances, the APC maintains its stance of not recognizing President Julius Maada Bio’s legitimacy and refuses to participate in any level of governance until the electoral irregularities are satisfactorily addressed.
The party warns that the erosion of democracy and the rule of law in Sierra Leone, as observed in other African nations, can lead to autocracy and instability.
The APC concludes its statement by calling on defenders of democracy and the rule of law to take action to prevent the undermining of the will of the electorate and the deterioration of democratic principles in Sierra Leone and beyond.
Lansana Dumbuya Esq, National Secretary-General, confirmed the party’s position in the statement.
Fake party. Then wait until 2028 maybe then you will accept the result of the elections to be held. I doubt not Kabdeh Koleh Yumkella. He will continue to deal with the APC fools.
KKY is already a disgrace and your plans of handing power over to him will fail.
U folly boy call yourself Mohamed Kamara can you close your perineum if you don’t have something better to say
A – all
P- political
C- criminals
You will remain in opposition for the next thirty years. If you think an independent group of judges will come presides over election petition in Sierra Leone, then you are day dreaming. You had wanted to bring war again in Sierra Leone, but God did not allow it to happen, thanks to Almighty God and our security forces that were vigilant. You have strategies every means to bring unrest in the country and also to unseat the government of President Bio through your so-called strike/demonstration by the support of your internal and external allies, but God has always been by his side, guiding, protecting and leading him to the right direction for development, progress and prosperity of our beloved nation. You have used both international and innocent national to support you in coming to power, but you did not succeed, let me tell you this, the election period in Sierra Leone is over, now Sierra Leone is moving forward, we are no longer going backward.
When you were kicked out of power in 2018, you took all the country money and kept them in your house thinking that by doing so, things will become hard in the country, yes things were head, but all that is due to your selfish interest and bad governance, pretending that you are patriots and that you are fighting for the interest of the people of Sierra Leone, not knowing that you fighting for your own selfish interest.
Despite all that, president Bio was very focus in achieving his goal, through the government of President Bio, Sierra Leone gain a lot of international recognition, building a brand new airport, established the free quality education for our children, strengthens and revamping the health sector and that has led to the reduction of maternal deaths in the country, as a nation we can proudly boast of this great achievement, electricity supply even to remote areas that has not gotten electricity for decades, infrastructural development, i.e construction of school buildings and health facilities and as well as road construction, Changing face of the Sierra Leone parliament. Tell me, is this not a development?
The stance of APC will cripple SLPP governance. You just waite and see