(Feature)
With election results announced which has given the incumbent, President Julius Maada Bio victory in the first round and his party, the Sierra Leone People’s Party 60% majority in parliament. The opposition, the All People’s Congress party so far has neither congratulated the president nor accepted the results. And have gone ahead to summon elected MPs, mayors and chairpersons telling them not to take part in the governance of the country for the next five years. They have written a communique and appended their signatures of non-compliance claiming the election was “rigged” in favour of the ruling party, SLPP.
Overtures have been made by President Bio to the main opposition, APC to join him in
“building the country as the task is not easy”.
But so far, the APC has not budged. Some sections of international observers have called into question the” lack of transparency” in the tallying process which the ruling party has dismissed. And the new parliament must convene this July for the speaker and deputy to be elected and committees formed for the work of parliament to commence. It seems they are heading to a dead end so far.
Sierra Leone is a small country in West Africa that has seen a brutal eleven-year civil war that almost rendered this country a failed state. Even though the country had its first democratic elections in 1996 and has seen a transfer of power from one political party to the other there have always been tensions.
But this one has seen ” unprecedented” tensions since the end of the war in 2002. The country has made some progress in building good institutions and some key developmental strides but more needs to be done. A country like Sierra Leone which has precious minerals like diamond, rutile, gold and vast untapped farmland still has the majority of its people living in poverty. It remains to see if this move by the opposition APC is a selfish one or is in the best interest of the country.