By Hasbin Shaw in Freetown, Sierra Leone
The National Electoral Watch (NEW), a coalition of local and international organization, has frowned on recent heaped of inciting statements coming from politicians and political leaders in Sierra Leone in the wake of general and presidential elections. The group says it has observed inflammatory statements in the media coming from political leaders.
“Our attention has been drawn to recent statements made by the presidential candidate of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio, whilst responding to the party’s position relating to the recent interim injunction,” the group noted Tuesday, “this was also followed by the statement made by the National Publicity Secretary of the SLPP, Lahai Lawrence Leema on the AYV on Sunday TV program insinuating the possibility of a ‘coup d’état’ in the event that the run-off election did not take place on the 27th March 2018.”
NEW urges all political party leaders to respect the ECOWAS protocol on Democracy and good Governance as stated in section 1 of aaticle 1 (b) “every ascension to power must be made through free, fair and transparent elections” and (c) “zero tolerance for power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means.”
“As we move to another critical stage of the electoral process; the presidential runoff, NEW reminds all and sundry that though there are issues to address in view of the conduct of the presidential election runoff, it is incumbent that all stakeholders restraint themselves and dialogue their way to a successful conclusion of the electoral process,” it said.
The SLPP responded in a press release stating that it is regrettable that NEW was not in attendance at the press conference nor was it at the meeting with elections observers convened at the Radisson Blu on Sunday 26 March 2018. Clearly from the NEW statement they failed to specifically mention which aspect of the recent statement was inflammatory. Such a blanket description by NEW without any specificity is a misrepresentation and has the potential to undermine its impartiality as elections observers, political observers said.
“It is unacceptable that NEW has made public allegations of ‘inflammatory statement’ by the SLPP presidential candidate Julius Maada Bio without evidence and facts to substantiate this allegation in their statement,” says SLPP
The Party noted the statement by the by NEW is an attempt to tarnish the reputation of the SLPP presidential candidate in the run-up to the presidential runoff. “The press statement delivered by Brigadier (Rtd) Julius Maada Bio and his subsequent responses to questions from members of the press on Sunday 25th March were robust, strong and reflected the views of many Sierra Leonean,” the Party added.
