The shameful state of democracy under the Maada Bio dictatorship was demonstrated in living colors yesterday when at long last, after holding on to the results illegally for three days, the National Elections Commission ( NEC ) finally called the results of the two two disputed bye-elections held in Koinadugu over the weekend. .And as feared by Sierra Leoneans, it was all doctored and rigged –
Realizing that the inevitability of defeat in the Chaormanship bye-elections could not be successfully reversed, however criminally they tried, the SLPP allowed the opposition APC to win it as they did but they tampered with the figures to ensure a narrow APC victory that will give the misleading impression that the SLPP have infiltrated one of the biggest strongholds of the APC.
it was all they could do and all they wanted to do —-change the figures, reduce the APC votes significantly for no legal reason and bloat the SLPP votes so that they will console themselves with the belief that APC had lost tremendous capital in its very strong backyard.
Even though the scores from the provisional results counted on Saturday and recorded in RFM forms handed to party executives on both sides showed the APC winning by over 75 percent , the bogus results released by NEC yesterday showe the APC winning by only 61 % while the SLPP was made to move from 25% to 39 %
But this was not all. If it had ended at that, only would have regarded the SLPP as glorified rogues for at least conceding that the APC won the bye-elections. But they went one notch further in criminality by changing the results of the councilor bye~ election and giving themselves victory, though in reality, that election was won by the APC, giving that it was the same voters who cast their ballots in the two bye-elections.
The opposition APC outright ly rejected the results and threatened to challenge it in court . According to the APC, what the SLP P did was to change the 049 the SLPP got in one polling station to 149 and reducing the APC votes there, enabling SLPP to win by just 6 votes.
This blatant criminal behavior by NEC, under the instruction of the corrupt and undemocratic SLPP, has further put Sierra Leone democracy under a very dark cloud .
This kind of undemocratic behavior by a sitting government led to the recent military coup in Guinea, which the African Union ( AU) and the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS ) have not been able to reverse, despite rejecting it, because it has the overwhelming support of the Guinean people.
Sierra Leoneans have been left stunned and paralyzed by disbelief, anger and fear for the future of their nation. SLPP knew that Koinadugu is an APC stronghold and there is no way they could have avoided losing by a landslide in both elections.
But the criminal reason for rigging the elections was made clear by rabid supporters of the SLPP on social media ——“We were looking for only 30 percent of the Koinadugu votes, which will show that we have made inroads into the APC stronghold , which is also all we need in 2023 to win the presidential elections. “
Being a party that also loath losing elections, they gave themselves victory in the councilor bye- election to square the scores. Now, their supporters are bragging that they forced APC to a draw in their own stronghold.
if this criminal act by NEC and SLPP stand, it will send a dangerous message that democracy is no longer working in Sierra Leone and that all future elections will be rigged in Favour of the SLPP.
