The rumpus between the Sierra Leone Government and the European Union ( EU ) over the EU Elections Follow-Up Report , which seriously indicted the National Elections Commission ( NEC ) , the Political Parties Registration Commission ( PPRC ) , the judiciary and the Police , has continued .
It will be recalled that in its Report , the EU stated without equivocation : “The Mission has been told that there is a significant decrease in trust in the essential bodies which play integral roles in the forthcoming elections. These include the judiciary, NEC, PPRC, and the police. Our findings are that these institutions’ reputations are less trusted than is needed. But further, our assessment is that there are real grounds for concern in the ways in which these bodies have administered recent bye-elections.”
NEC released a statement challenging the Report and now even the Judiciary and the PPRC have done the same.
STATEMENT BY THE JUDICIARY
We acknowledge and appreciate the role of the European Union (EU) in supporting our democratic consolidation efforts, but we respectfully disagree with some of the findings/statements in the recent mission to the country. In some ways, the basis of some of the statements were flawed.
It was quite misleading to have stated that the Judiciary should have ordered fresh elections after annulling the elections in which the 10 APC MPs were elected. To be clear, those elections were never annulled or declared void by the court. In other words, the reference to Public Elections Act was unnecessary.
In the case of Osman A. Timbo, for example, the Court stated that, “the 1st Respondent Osman Abdal Timbo was not duly elected or returned as Member of Parliament for Constituency 130 Western Urban District in the Western Area of the Republic of Sierra Leone on 7th day of March 2018”, adding that “the 1st Respondent’s declaration as winner by the National Returning Officer is hereby nullified as his candidature to run for the election on same was illegal ab initio.”
Clearly, the Courts did not nullify the elections that affected the 10 MPs who were disqualified. Importantly, those elections that were annulled or declared void (like in Constituency 110), fresh elections were ordered. The EU Mission could have done a better job of understanding the facts and putting out a statement that reflects same.
Let us allow the Judiciary to be independent and dispense justice within its mandate.
We are committed to continuing the ongoing reforms in the judiciary and work in the interest of the people.
Please see a snippet of the Orders of the Court in the Abdal Timbo case.
Elkass Sannoh
Judiciary Communications
1st November 2021
