By Ilyasa Baa
A delegation from the Commonwealth has arrived in Sierra Leone on Wednesday 6th September,2023 to meet with members of the APC and SLPP Government.
According to our information, the International organization is in the country to serve as an independent arbiter and is supposed to hold a two days meeting with members of the APC and SLPP Government to address the current political impasse that erupted the country since the announcement of the June 24 Presidential election results.
The proposed meeting is expected to be held in Freetown on Thursday and Friday to chat the way forward in resolving the political crisis in the country whereas the APC has stood its grounds to boycott all levels of governance due to potential electoral rigging and the refusal of the Electoral Commission to publish the disaggregated election results by polling stations.
An insider of the APC has confirmed to Voice of Salone Newspaper about their meeting with the Commonwealth team, but refused to comment on the purpose of the meeting, which he said, will be done after their engagement to see what would be the outcome.
The APC in a press release dated 6th September,2023, confirmed their meeting with Commonwealth on Thursday, intimating “in that regard, they will be engaging both parties (i.e. the APC and the Government separately with a view to getting the basis upon which negotiation will kick start”, the APC Press release reads.
During the usual Government Press briefing held on Tuesday, the Executive Secretary of the Independent Peace Commission, Hawa Samai, has reiterated that in all their engagement with the APC, the party said that they can only seat on the table for peace talks when an independent mediator proposed a meeting with them.
Therefore, in that direction, she said, the peace Commission has written a letter to the Commonwealth, Africa Union and ECOWAS to come and help them to mediate so that the two parties will map out how they can sort out their differences, adding in that direction, President Bio has agreed to engage the APC with independent mediators in the interest of peace and national cohesion.
It could be recalled that during the June 24 General elections the Commonwealth sent Observer Group to observe the conduct of the Multi-tier elections and during their observation findings, they discovered that the elections was generally peacefully despite heightened tensions during the week.
The Chairperson of the Commonwealth Observer Group, H.E. Prof. Yemi Osinbajo had this to say:
“We were impressed by the significant turn-out of voters and the largely peaceful conduct of the elections – a testimony to the will of the people to consolidate the democratic gains of Sierra Leone. It was observed that election actors conducted themselves as expected on election day.”
However, the Observer Group highlighted key logistical challenges, such as the late delivery of election materials to polling centres and the delay of opening of polling stations across the country.
They highlighted that there were some cases of inadequate public communication from the Electoral Commission, gaps in levels of transparency and a deficit in public trust in the Electoral Commission and other key state institutions such as the judiciary.
The Group noted isolated incidents of skirmishes, police arrests and attacks on polling officials and political party agents and confrontation between security services and the opposition party on the day after the elections which flared political tensions.
