The Salone Fos Newspaper has done a commentary on the past Koya Bye-Election, revealing the fowl-played by both the APC and SLPP.

The commentary goes like this : “The SLPP party spent money, fiti fata on the Koya 073 By-election, as they do with public funds, but unfortunately it did not change the election outcome.

On the day of the election, SLPP deployed a huge feeding and transportation programme, to feed and bus voters to the polling stations in the constituency, in an attempt to buy votes. Suddenly, all those ‘APC owned’ petrol stations, were quite happy to provide fuel, to transport voters, to make sure they cast their vote for the SLPP.

SLPP behaved like a football club which is desperate to win the league, would do. It signed up top players from its main challengers. Alpha Khan, a.k.a Mr Port Loko, was going to turn Port Loko from red to green. Allegedly, IJ Kabbah was going to make an appearance at the SLPP rally prior to the election, but we didn’t get to see the photos. What SLPP’s first team coach, Julius Maada Bio, did not realise, was that neither Alphan Khan, IJ Kabbah or Foh, were match fit and Blyden has disciplinary issues.

Thankfully, on the day of elections, US Embassy staff deployed themselves at both the Koya and Kailahun By-elections, to ensure that the elections were free and fair at the polling stations and tallying centres. This must have angered the Bio Government, who have placed restrictions on the movement of the EU Election Observer at the incompetent NEC. NEC, now rebranded as the ECSL, in a desperate attempt to appear independent and unbiased following the brutal EU Election Monitoring Report in November 2021, is desperate to give the impression that it has got its house in order.

Unconfirmed results provided by the APC predict an APC win by a significant 18 point margin. If these results are confirmed, it will be a victory for APC and for the Consortium of Progressive Political Parties, of which APC is a member. It vindicates NGC’s decision to withdraw their candidate, to enable CoPPP to unite behind a single candidate and as such, provides evidence that the governing SLPP, will loose the 2023 elections, if the parties within CoPPP remain together.

SLPP spin doctors will paint a picture of significant advance in Port Loko, but the reality is, at the 2023 elections, the governing SLPP will be contesting the elections on all fronts, not just in one constituency. It will be do so against the backdrop of worsening economic conditions; grinding poverty and hopefully, lack of essential services (water, electricity, healthcare), hopelessness. It will face a united and determined opposition bolstered by this result, which will also now understand that *bot game* is the only way forward. Hopefully, buoyed by the Koya By-election outcome, CoPPP will now begin to develop concrete plans, to move from consortium to a workable coalition agreement, where these parties will coalesce behind a single candidate at all levels, including the Presidency.

Yesterday, was proof that ‘bot game’ di woke. Speaking at the NGC Inaugural Dinner and Dance, yesterday, Kandeh Yumkella said *“Our job is not to oppose, for the sake of opposing, and that is also why NGC has been actively involved in establishing the Consortium of Progressive Political Parties (CoPPP) comprising the APC, C4C, UP, PMDC and eight other political parties. Through dialogue and collaboration, many more of us politicians have realized that we don’t have to let different party colors make us enemies.”