By Hassan Y. Koroma
The All People’s Congress (APC) National Chairman, Alhaji Minkailu Mansaray, has told party faithful at the party’s Old Railway Line national headquarters, west of Freetown, that President Julius Maada Bio himself has exposed the Elections Management Bodies (EMBs) when he called for an improvement in the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL)’s planning and conducting of transparent and fair elections.
He noted that even though President Bio had announced the establishment of a National Electoral Systems Review Committee to assess the planning and management of the 2023 electoral cycle, the APC as a party would not fall for such a move until such a Committee had trusted individuals to investigate the entire process.
It could be recalled that on Thursday 3 August 2023, on the occasion of the Opening of the Sixth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone, President Bio announced that, “The National Electoral Systems Review Committee, with a broad membership of the Government, Development Partners, Civil Society and Professional Organisations, will be led by the Honourable Vice President and supported by an ad-hoc Technical Secretariat”.
But during an exclusive interview with Radio Democracy FM 98.1 last week, the outgoing American Ambassador to Sierra Leone, David Reimer, said that there were concerns that the National Electoral Systems Review Committee might not be independent because the Vice President who would head it was a product of the disputed June 24 elections.
Meanwhile, at the APC headquarters, Alhaji Minkailu Mansaray reaffirmed the party’s position of not taking part in governance until the party’s demands were addressed.
Hon. Minkailu Mansaray informed APC members that though they had allowed the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone and the Peace Commission to engage them [the APC]; they were still concerned that even though those bodies were aware of all the wrongs meted out on the APC and its leadership by the security forces and the ECSL, none of them said anything. “We still endure the pain of listening to them because the APC wants peace,” he stated.
He reassured the party faithful of their commitment, as leaders, to stand up for them and settle anything in their best interest and that of the nation.
Hon. Minkailu Mansaray made those comments on Tuesday this week whilst addressing mourners of the late Hassan Dumbuya aka Evangelist Samson who was shot by men in military uniforms in Makeni, northern Sierra Leone, last August.