Campaigning for Sierra Leone’s August 11 legislative and presidential elections began Tuesday, with outgoing head of state Ahmad Tejan Kabbah calling for “violent-free” polls.

“Let me remind all that politics is a friendly contest and we should accept the outcome. Let us all sustain the level of peace now existing in the country,” said Kabbah, who is stepping down after serving for the maximum allowed two terms.

“All Sierra Leoneans should ensure that the elections are violent-free,” he added.

The polls on August 11 will be closely watched abroad for signs confirming that the unrest that fuelled Sierra Leone’s 1991-2001 civil war has been definitively quelled.

The spokeswoman for the country’s National Electoral Commission, Miatta French, said seven parties had registered for the elections.

“We will observe how the parties campaign from now on until August 9 (the end of the campaigning period) to ensure that they keep within the law and not be violent in their utterances,” she said.

On the same day as the two elections, Sierra Leone’s voters will also be asked to vote in a referendum on changing the constitution.

A special UN envoy to the country, Victor Angelo, said: “The start of the campaign is important as Sierra Leone advances on the road to democratic consolidation.”

IC Publications

Indeed Sierra Leone’s march towards the August 11 Presidential and Parliamentary elections would not really be easy for anybody to steal the show under the carpet as it used to be in the previous times in 1996 and 2002 respectively.
This one is different as three tough contenders are hooking on each other’s throat and trying to pull apart.
But interestingly, two of the three prominent parties are in the line of duty doing the job of the opposition as much in expected from them to advocate the much needed changes and convince the public why they are serious to replace the government of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party.
The main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) is the traditional north-western led party of indigenes that has ruled Sierra Leone for close to 24 years before it was toppled from power in a military coup in 1992. It represents the values of national unity, security, peace, development and better economic management and people’s welfare. Under its two leaders, Siaka Stevens and Joseph Saidu Momoh administrations, much of what Sierra Leone can boast about development today was achieved in their reign.
Thus, such a party which has served the country and revived itself as a formidable force has a nationwide support than even the ruling government party, SLPP, and its chances to win the polls are great. Nothing is so important to the APC than its crowds.
The other is the newly formed Peoples Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC). The party is a splinter group of the SLPP over the leadership succession of the party formed in 2005.
It’s Leader and Founder is Freetown’s erudite legal practitioner Mr. Charles Francis Margai. Mr. Margai hailed from Gbangbatoke in the Moyamba district in the southern province of sierra Leone. Believed to be a man of principles, fearless, outspoken, most of Margai’s supporters profess to have similar qualities of life like him. They believe that only the likes of Margai can confront Sierra Leone’s problems especially on corruption to resolve them. With benevolent dictatorship as he has always professed to introduce if he comes to power, his supporters believe his in fist can mould the most crooked man to be straight in Sierra Leone.
Standing poles apart, while the APC boasts of the crowds, the PMDC boasts of the voice.
This has been demonstrated on many occasions in the quite recent past.
The APC rallies in Freetown and up country have been remarkably dubbed as victorious to be the likely winners of the August polls if those crowds are maintained and convinced to vote them in. From Makeni to Port Loko, Freetown to Kono and pockets of well-wishers and supporters in Bo and Kenema who remember the good old days of the party while in power, the party really boasts of the crowds as a forte to win.
But how about the voice on issues of serious national importance such as security, undue politics interference, the clandestine plans to rig the polls and many others now coming to light?
Virtually speaking, the APC is silent on these, and this is where the PMDC takes the credits.
With a vociferous leader like Charles Margai, the PMDC has been in the line of duty firing every missile at opponent positions to counter or forestall any political magament aimed at rigging the elections of August 11 2007.
First the party came strong in opposing the government’s monopoly over campaigning through sensitization and commissioning of programmes by taking the matter with NEC and the Political Parties Registration Commission, PPRC.
This action was followed by NEC and PPRC convening a meeting in 2006 to address the issue. The outcome harmonizes a situation which guarantees that all parties must abide by NEC’s political code of conduct on campaigning. The PMDC did not only stop there but demonstrated its commitment to the process by challenging a recent IMF projection that the SLPP party will likely win the elections in Sierra Leone as political interference by the global financial institution. The PMDC opposition was aptly demonstrated through press releases, letters to the IMF and many other forms of opposition to the pronouncement. The result forced the IMF to later withdraw the statement saying it did not say so. That was a major victory of the opposition by the PMDC which demonstrated that despite the role of the international community such as the IMF is recognized in Sierra Leone, yet it cannot be allowed to middle too much or dictate for the country especially in such a time when the Sierra Leone people should take the cause of deciding their destiny and not the international community.
Another important development the PMDC demonstrated it vociferousness is the Obasanjo pre-ordination of Berewa as successor of be head of the state. That development too saw the PMDC flexing its muscles and opposition over such irate pronouncement of the ex-Nigerian president.
But the latest outburst and show of opposition the PMDC has demonstrated is the visit of the Libyan leader Muarmmar Al-Ghaddafi. The PMDC did not only demonstrate its displeasure, but its leader Mr. Francis Margai went on international radio over the BBC on Focus on Africa and Network Africa programmes both and challenged Ghadhafi’s visit as a provocation. Caring for the Sierra Leone people Mr. Margai said Ghaddafi should apologize to the Sierra Leonean people for the atrocities his sponsored one time war machinery, the RUF, brought to Sierra Leone.
While all these developments were unfolding the main opposition APC has been quite and busy with other things and is none performing its traditional role.
Hon. Ernest Bai Koroma, the leader is known much as an administrator than a representative. His historical background says he doesn’t talk much than his actions. However though it is said action speaks louder than words, yet in the political chess game, words speak more than actions especially when dealing with issues bordering the peoples’ lives. The impression has left many people doubtful who the real opposition is, APC or PMDC?
Although some of the actions of the PMDC are politically irate and done out of desperation such as attempts to technically elbow the vice president and leader of the SLPP Mr. Solomon Berewa who was being challenged as not qualified to contest the presidency because he was alleged not qualify as a member of parliament under the present constitution which case was thrown out of court by the Supreme Court, yet the party has demonstrated that even if it does not win the presidential elections on a large percentage and probably too, would not control parliament, Sierra Leoneans would stand to benefit from a good representation of the likes of MPs like Charles Margai in the next parliament of the next republic of Sierra Leone.
Unlike its counterpart the APC, despite all the crowds, the big wigs, financialists, and top Vons of the state secretly supporting it, yet it has shown very little impression as the main opposition party.
The likes of Victor Foh and Alpha Kanu, the spokesman of the presidential candidate, Ernest Koroma, supposed to be the main advocates and hawks set against the preys are being dormant on issues bordering the people such as the Ghaddafi and others.
Though it is understood that the APC is trying to bolster a new image in the southeast by penetrating moderate politics in the region and avoiding antagonism with its arch rival, the SLPP, yet their dormancy is not being appreciated. Compared to the PMDC, it is bigger, better and stronger collectively and individually but forgetting its traditional role may lead the PMDC to steal the show and probably influence the electorates especially those still sitting on the fence to decide their minds at the last moment for the orange party.
The elections have not commenced yet and are still far from over. Thus there is only one winner yet, and that is the SLPP.
Until proper consolidation is made, intensified campaigns are mounted, better issues are addressed and the votes cast, counted and announced before a winner emerges. Therefore the road to victory is a long way and complacency is the first factor to destruction.
The APC should be seen to be a better opposition even at this dying moment than what it has been representing through out its parliamentary life span as main opposition. To the PMDC, bravo up keep it up till the polls.

African Path

On the eve of the start of election campaigning in Sierra Leone, a senior United Nations official in the country today urged democratic conduct by the parties.

“A peaceful campaign is crucial for credible elections,” said the Executive Representative of the Secretary-General, Victor Angelo, encouraging all candidates to abide by the Political Parties Code of Conduct.

He said the UN trusts that they “will keep the national interest above everything else and exhibit during the campaigning period the democratic maturity that they have shown during the nomination phase, as well as during the previous stages of the electoral process.”

Mr. Angelo also urged reporters and producers to fully adhere to the Media Code of Conduct.

Sierra Leonean voters will go to the polls on 11 August for nationwide elections.

allAfrica.com: Sierra Leone: As Election Campaign Approaches, UN Official Urges Democratic Conduct (Page 1 of 1)

Freetown, Sierra Leone (PANA) – The Chairman of Ghana National Electoral Commission, David Adeenze Kangah has arrived in Freetown to observe preparations by Sierra Leone’s Elections Commission (NEC) the presidential and parliamentary elections on 11 August 2007.

NEC Public Relations officer, Isaac Curtis Hook said Kangah arrived here Friday with a four-member delegation hailing from the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS).

Kangah told a press briefing Saturday that they were in Freetown to assess NEC’s preparations for the scheduled presidential and parliamentary elections in Sierra Leone.

“Our mission is in furtherance of the 2001 ECOWAS supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance which mandates the ECOWAS Commission to send fact-finding missions to member states preparing for elections.

The Director of Training and Communication, Gambian Joseph Colley said the mission will hold broad consultations with major stakeholders and key democratic institutions such as Parliament, the National Electoral Commission, political parties, civil society organizations, the media, security agencies and international organizations involved in the electoral process.

Earlier, Director General of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador-at-large Umaru Bonn Wurie assured the delegation of government’s preparation for the elections in a “free, transparent and fair atmosphere”.

ECOWAS assesses preparations for elections in Sierra Leone | Afrique en ligne

APA-Freetown (Sierra Leone) Sierra Leone’s army deputy of defence staff, Brigadier Alfred Nelson-Williams, on Thursday assured the citizens of the country of the army’s neutrality in political issues and pledged the institution’s readiness to safeguard peace and ensure security throughout the upcoming general and presidential elections.

Brigadier Nelson-Williams made the statement at the military headquarters in Freetown to allay rumours and apprehension among the civilian population that stems from fresh memories of military takeovers shortly after elections.

In May 1997, a military junta overthrew the then ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) government barely a year after it won a democratic election and held sway for nine months before it was flushed out by a Nigerian-led regional intervention force, ECOMOG.

Also in 1967, the army seized power after a disputed general and presidential election and many now fear history might well be on the way of repeating itself.

“The Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces personnel would not meddle in the conduct of the general and presidential elections in August besides providing security,” Brig. Nelson-Williams reassured.

He then explained that the army has formulated and adopted a code of conduct for personnel who will be on duty during elections billed for 11 August 2007.

The system of separate voting for military personnel would have to be abolished so that the forces can not be seen as owing allegiance to a political party, he insisted.

In the last presidential elections, the army and para-military forces massively voted for a military-turned-civilian candidate that came close to clinching the presidency.

Sierra Leone army assures citizens of political neutrality | Afrique en ligne

Recently, a youth leader asked the New Citizen – how it was possible for somebody who lost elections in 1977 or 1982 and hurriedly left the country after losing the elections to come back thirty years later and claim that they have the interest of the people in their constituencies at heart.
A youth from Port Loko recently told the New Citizen that before, during and after the rebel war, they had looked forward to their brothers and sisters in the Diaspora to come home and give them some comfort and respite from the rigours of the rebel war, and to their greatest surprise, no one came.
“As the presidential and parliamentary elections of August 11 2007 are drawing nearer, people who have abandoned us for more than thirty years have resurfaced to compete with us to our disadvantage because they come with truck loads of money while we do not have money,” a youth leader said.
The complainant further said that these people have lost touch with their own relatives in their constituencies and some of them cannot even speak the local dialect which is the only medium of communication with their constituency members.
“These ‘Jay Cees’ just look like foreigners to us, they don’t how to dress, they cannot understand the language of the common man, they don’t share meals with us, they don’t even give us rides in their big cars and how can they then claim that they love us and that we should trust them with our destinies, by voting them into parliament? How can I entrust my destiny into the hands of a man who does not know me and does not care for me just because he has flown home with a few thousand dollars which he wants to lavish on electorates to win votes?” the youth asked.
Most of these ‘Jay Cees’ who want us to vote for them don’t even have houses in Sierra Leone anymore and instead reside in guesthouses, hotels and motels.
It is surprising if these people are voted into parliament to see how they would conduct the affairs of their constituencies through mobile phones.
We the electorates of Sierra Leone want the people we vote for to have homes and addresses that we know and can visit for the purposes of discussing the problems of our communities with them.
How can we discuss the problems of our constituencies in motels, guesthouses and hotels?
There is no doubt that if these ‘Jay Cees’ who want us to vote for them are serious, the first thing they should do is secure permanent addresses by building homes in the communities or constituencies they want to represent in parliament, so that each time we want to see them, we know where we can find and they too know where they too know where they can find us.
This idea of running back to Sierra Leone only to contest elections, lose the elections and run back to the safe haven of the western world should be discouraged so that we give a chance to those who live with the people, eat with the people, drink with the people, laugh with the people, cry with the people, to be the people’s representatives in parliament.
A youth who prefers to remain anonymous from Lunsar suggested that the new parliament to be elected on August 11 2007 should enact laws that would make it mandatory for all those who want to contest elections to reside in Sierra Leone ten years before the elections they wish to contest, so that they would be better known by the people in their various constituencies and the people in these communities would also know them.
This hit and run tactics of ‘Jay Cees” must be stopped in the interest of electing people who have the love of this country at heart and who will stay with the people of Sierra Leone through thick and thin.

The New Citizen Publications

THE Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has called for the creation of a United States of Africa, and appears to be positioning himself to be its first leader.

Flanked by his coterie of bodyguards as the continent’s 53 heads of state gathered for an African Union summit in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, on Sunday, Colonel Gaddafi declared: “My vision is to wake up the African leaders to unify our continent. Long live the United States of Africa, long live African unity.”

The rallying cry preceded the summit’s “grand debate” on pan-Africanism, first mooted by Ghana’s first post-independence leader, Kwame Nkrumah.

It also coincided with revelations that Portugal was to invite Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe – who also attended the Accra summit – to a meeting of European and African leaders in Lisbon this year despite a European Union travel ban and sanctions against the dictator.

Britain has fiercely opposed Mugabe’s presence at the European summit. But a senior Portuguese official said: “This is a summit for all African countries at the highest level, heads of government or heads of state. All African countries must be invited.”

In Accra, critics accused Colonel Gaddafi of grandstanding, saying the gathering should focus on Zimbabwe, Darfur and Somalia, and on the continent’s chronic corruption and poverty.

Officials from Africa’s leading economies including Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya were “quietly distancing themselves” from Colonel Gaddafi’s statements, sources at the summit said.

But the Libyan leader was supported by Ghana’s President, John Kufuor, and the chairman of the African Union commission, Alpha Oumar Konare. “The question of unification is not in doubt,” Mr Kufuor said. “What remains is the form of government and how and when to attain it.”

However, sceptics pointed to gaping flaws in the operations of the African Union, where only seven of the 53 members are up to date with their annual payments.

Concerns about African poverty were reinforced by a United Nations report yesterday that found that sub-Saharan Africa will fail to meet the goals set seven years ago for eradicating global poverty by 2015.

Boosted by economic progress in China and India, the UN said the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day had fallen from 23.4 per cent in 1999 and was on track to hit the 15.8 per cent target for 2015.

But the benchmarks for Africa would not be met. Forty-six per cent of African children under five are registered as underweight, while infant mortality is down by one-sixth, against the UN’s target of a two-thirds cut.

In health, sub-Saharan Africa was the only region where the incidence of tuberculosis rose.

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said: “The results presented in this report suggest that … success is still possible in most parts of the world. But they also point to how much remains to be done.”

Unity talks while Africa starves – World – smh.com.au

Peoples Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) leader, Charles Francis Margai Saturday alleged that President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah sold the much talk of the town controversial rice that was donated to the people of Sierra Leone by the Libyan leader, Muammar Qhadafi in Ghana.

Margai who made this allegation during a press briefing at his party’s office, Hannah Benka-Coker Street, said as erstwhile Cabinet Minister in President Kabbah’s government he was never aware of the Libyan rice donation.

The PMDC leader said he was never notified that the seed money from the sale of the rice was used to set up the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT).

“As Cabinet Minister I was not aware of any rice given to the people of this country from Libya. The Cabinet records are there,” Margai stated adding that the Parliamentarians were also not informed about the rice.

He explained that if he was aware about the whole issue he would have opposed it out rightly.

On his chances of winning the elections, Margai said, he has traversed the country and predicted that the PMDC will win the elections.

“If there is going to be a run-off it will be between PMDC and APC. The SLPP has more to explain to the people of this country than the PMDC and APC,” he said.

It can be recalled that over the past days a statement that was made by President Kabbah at the National Stadium during the visit of Colonel Muammar Qhadafi of Libya has been taken out of context.

The Editor of Standard Times newspaper, Philip Neville, who it is claimed misquoted the president will today appear in court after being charged with one-count of publishing false information as provided in the Public Order Act of 1965 under Section 32 (2) and 32 (3) . On Wednesday, the Standard Times ran a story attributing a statement made by President Kabbah to the Libyan leader, Muammar Qhadafi.

allAfrica.com: Sierra Leone: Kabbah Sold the Rice in Ghana – Charles Margai (Page 1 of 1)

Only five out of the eight registered political parties submitted names of their parliamentary aspirants at the close of the Tuesday deadline.

Isaac Curtis-Hooke, National Electoral Commission External Affairs Officer said on Wednesday that of the five, it was the SLPP, APC and PMDC who submitted a full list of 112 aspirants each for all the constituencies. The other two, UNPP and NDA were unable to fill candidates in some parts of the country.

The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) party, the PDP and fugitive Johnny Paul Koroma’s PLP are registered but did not present names of Presidential and Parliamentary candidates to contest the August 11 elections.

RUFP Secretary General, Jonathan Kposowa admitted that the party is broke and to make matters worse, they have been evicted from the building they had occupied in Freetown since the rebel movement was transformed into a political party after the war.The RUFP effectively collapsed after the death in detention of its leader Corporal Foday Saybana Sankoh (photo).

The PDP disintegrated after the death of its Leader Thaimu Bangura and even in the 2002 elections did not present a presidential candidate. Similarly for the PLP, whose only two members in the outgone Parliament had defected to opposition parties.

Dr. John Karefa-Smart’s UNPP which came second in the 1996 elections but was not represented in the last Parliament since it did not win a single seat in the 2002 elections is locked in a serious leadership struggle.

A breakaway faction led by Abdul Karim Kadry who was based in the USA for a long time, held a national convention last year attempting to dethrone Karefa-Smart as leader.

Karefa-Smart’s faction had filed a petition with the Political Parties Registration Commission and NEC challenging the eligibility of the new leadership.

Meanwhile a meeting has been scheduled for Thursday between the National Electoral Commission and political parties to work out the formality for the nomination of their respective presidential candidates.

Five Parties To Contest August 11 Polls

Ugandan Judge Ssebutinde is head of the special court trying human rights violations and war crimes during the civil strike that wrecked Sierra Leone in the 1990s. Below find a close look at the credibility of the court as seen by an independent observer:-

In his article in the Sunday Monitor of June 10, Mr Mohammed Matovu clearly demonstrated how international criminal tribunals are driven by both politics and international law. He is right that if a judge at such a court is not careful he/she might end up delivering political judgements.

This is true because of the circumstances that surround the establishing and functioning of those courts. This is not a new phenomenon in international criminal law. Those who are familiar with international criminal law will agree with me that the Nuremburg and Tokyo Tribunals that were established after World War II were more political than legal.

They enforced what international criminal law experts call “Victor’s Justice” as opposed to real justice. How will the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) (where our own Justice Julie Ssebutinde is based) be remembered?

While appearing before the SCSL in early February 2006, one of the accused, Mr Sam Hinga Norman (former Deputy Minister of Defence and later Minister of Internal Affairs in Sierra Leone who has since died), called upon the SCSL to indict the President of Sierra Leone, Dr Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, for some of the atrocities that were committed during a 10-year-civil war that wrecked Sierra Leone.

What Norman was saying was that if indeed the SCSL is in place to bring about justice in Sierra Leone, the prosecutor should have indicted Mr. Kabbah otherwise the court would be seen as an instrument being used by those in power in collaboration with the United Nations against those who are not in power.

The SCSL was established by an agreement between the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations with the “power to prosecute persons who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law committed in the territory of Sierra Leone since November 30, 1996, including those leaders who, in committing such crimes, have threatened the establishment of and implementation of the peace process in Sierra Leone.” The internationally well-known former Liberian president Charles Taylor is one of the accused.

Dr Kabbah, the President of Sierra Leone, is not one of those who were indicted by the SCSL yet his role in the civil war is well documented and this explains why his former Deputy Minister of Defence, Norman, called upon the court to indict him.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was put in place to make findings in relation to the causes, nature and extent of violations and abuses during the armed conflict in Sierra Leone concluded recommended that Dr Kabbah should be held responsible for the acts of his agents on the ground (paragraph 278).

The Commission also found that (at paragraph 283) the government (headed by Kabbah) was kept informed through its Security Committee briefings and through reports received from Ecomog that the Civil Defence Forces (CDF) were committing unspeakable human rights violations, but failed to take steps to stop them. The Commission concluded that the government was responsible for the violations and abuses of human rights committed by the CDF.

There is no reason why the SCSL should use different standards to prosecute people for the same offences. In cases of the former rebels (RUF and AFRC), the SCSL indicted the top brass and in cases where this was not possible, for example where the leaders died (Sankoh and Bockarie) or their whereabouts are not known (Koroma), the SCSL indicted those who deputised the leaders.

However, this was not done in the case of those in power. The SCSL indicted Hinga Norman who was the Deputy Minister of Defence and ignored Kabbah who was the Minister of Defence. This is so despite the fact that it is clear that Norman implemented orders that were given by Kabbah.

Dr Kabbah’s conduct and activities during the war automatically qualify him to ‘bear that greatest responsibility’ for the atrocities that were committed during that war and should therefore stand trial. Otherwise the SCSL will go on record as having furthered political interests and not delivering justice to the victims of Dr Kabbah actions and omissions.

Monitor Online | Opinions | Special Court for Sierra Leone: Enforcing politics?