By Kabs Kanu
Contrary to the erroneous news being peddled by some international news outlets, Sierra Leone remains tense and on knife’s edge few days after the country’s elections commission controversially and fraudulently declared President Maada Bio winner of the tumultuous elections of June 24, 2023.
Sierra Leone has still not returned to normalcy. Though most shops and markets as well as schools are now opened, the atmosphere is still charged with chaos as supporters of President Bio continued their unprovoked attacks on perceived supporters of the opposition All People’s Congress ( APC ), burning down homes of opponents and demolishing market stalls.
Yesterday , social media videos went viral of more beatings of opposition supporters and a very troubling event in Freetown of gunshots coming from a house and a woman seeing running outside, claiming in Temne that the APC strongman, former Minister of Defence, Retired Captain Palor Conteh had been shot dead, while a young man could be heard correcting her that Palor Conteh’s leg had in fact been broken.
The video caused tremendous anxiety among supporters of the APC who were speculating that one of their key supporters may have joined the number of their party people assassinated by this government since it came to power in 2018 and turned its guns on anybody suspected of opposing President Bio and his government. As at the time of going to press, the situation was still confusing but some APC supporters are claiming that Palor Conteh may be safe.
CHILDREN AND PARENTS FLEEING ATTACKS BY SLPP SUPPORTERS AT MASIAKA
Also causing unease in the country is the apparent standoff is developing between President Bio ‘s government and top international stakeholders over the fraudulent manner last week’s elections were conducted.
The Carter Centre, the EU and the combined team of the U.S, UK, Germany, Reublic of Ireland, France and the EU published fresh press statements yesterday , still insisting that the elections lacked transparency and credibility.
The European Union Election Observation Mission asked the Elections Commission of Sierra Leone to promptly publish disaggregated results data per polling station to allow for public scrutiny of the results, without which it said transparency was compromised. The EU observation noted that there were inconsistencies between the first and second batch of presidential results. It pinpointed “notable discrepancies in the number of average valid votes per polling state”, in addition to a strikingly low number of invalid ballots nationwide and a very high turnout exceeding 95% in at least three districts.
Another Press statement signed by The United States, Britain, Ireland, Germany, France and the EU stated unequivocally that they shared the concerns about lack of transparency in the tabulation process.
READ ALL THE PRESS STATEMENTS BELOW
