I am one of those who believe that the SLPP candidate, Mr. J.M.Bio, made the right decision to vindicate his elections fraud claims by seeking redress in our judicial system. I do not believe, however, that those claims are substantial enough to affect the elections outcome but they might help to identify weaknesses in the system and thus help to improve our electionsadministration.

To me, SLPP’s claims of injustice against their flag bearer is wholly without merit.

JOHN ERNEST LEIGH

The pattern of voting was highly predictable. President Koroma was expected to win big in the North and West as was the case in 2007 while Bio was expected to likewise do well in the Southeast, the SLPP heartland. Additionally, because of President Koroma’s successful push to begin the development of the country, however, some observers concluded that he will also be the beneficiary of whatever swing votes that may exist in our country.

SLPP was expected to do poorly in the North as was the case with Berewa/Momodu Koroma in 2007. In the present case, Bio was expected to do much worse in the North because of his alleged anti-northern junta acvtivities. In my view, that scenario is exactly what came to pass

President Koroma defeated Bio soundly by over 400,000 votes nationwide. Most of this margin resulted from the fact that the President did much better in his party’s strongholds than Bio did in SLPP’s. Additionally, the President did much better in SLPP’s strongholds than Bio did in APC’s heartland. There is also the fact that being the Government of the Day alone is worth tens of thousands o0f votes.

A very large portion of Bio’s votes came from the Southeast as expected and only less than 50,000 of Bio’s vote total came from the North. In contrast, EBK captured over 200,000 votes in the SLPP Southeast heartland. Development projects had turned once committed SLPP voters into APC voters. Many voters in Kono, Kailahun, Bo Kenema and elsewhere in the Southeast were pleased with the Present of the Day.

Bio was also badly beaten in the Western Area where he got a miserable circa 25% of the vote. Bio, as we know, was a lead NPRC junta member and that junta was notorious for human rights abuses and general mal-governance. Furthermore, revelations about Bio’s misconduct during his junta service did much to dry up SLPP support in the Western Area. In this same Western Area, EBK extended his win in 2012 from 66% in 2007 to 71%. This increase is expected given the local demographics and the heightened interest in nation building and the president role in it.

The SLPP candeidate had to deal with key problems of his own doing. To many voters, Bio was neither a national candidate nor a genuine SLPP flag bearer. Bio was labeled as from the so-called pa-o-pa group which insists that Bio should be our next president no matter what. His supporters were not deemed to be genuine slppers but infiltrators into SLPP from such organizations as the former National Unity Party, supporters of his NPRC junta, the notorious AFRC-RUF Junta and lesser organizations full of noise, immaturity and rudeness and nothing else.

Bio came across as having zero crossover appeal outside his mortley groups of young, immature followers originating mostly from the Southeast. It is clear to keen observers that real slppers voted for development or stayed at home as evidenced by the circa 200,000 votes EBK garnerd in the SLPP heartland, together with the 505,000 shortfall in voter registration numbers when compared with the registration numbers in the Northwest.

In my view, instead of wasting time in court and continuing to act in a manner innimical to SLPP’s long-term interests, Bio should accept the NEC numbers, then lay low and allow genuine slppers to do a political post-morten as to what went wrong in their quest for the presidency and identifying possible exits out of that party’s present predicament.

There is simply no future for slpp with Bio’s infiltration groups calling the shots. Bio must go and go soon.