Civil Society Movement Sierra Leone (CSM-SL) has met with political parties representatives, youth organizations, women coalition groups, SLTU and other stakeholders in Kenema city to address the issue of violence after elections.
The meeting took place at the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) office at Reservation road.
In his opening statement, the Chairman of CSM-SL in Kenema, Augustine Sannoh, remarked that the Civil Society movement as a non state actor has taken seriously the issue of tribal and regional divide and the reprisals after the elections, and has therefore decided to engage political parties to remedy the situation.
In his contribution the coordinator of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD), Patrick Adu said political parties in their campaign sent out a lot of messages some of which gave rise to the violence that accompanied the elections He warned that as grassroots people it is dangerous to perpetrate violence, adding that it will be to the detriment of the poor people, who lack the means to quickly run to safety in the face of any outbreak of conflict.
Edward Mungu of the Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD) called for a commitment to peace by the political parties.
Statements were made by representatives of Campaign for Good Governance (CGG), SLTU and the youths.
The representatives of APC, SLPP and PMDC all pledged their continued commitment to peace and pledged to make ensure that their various supporters adhere to it.
David Sama the regional organizing secretary of PMDC noted that without peace there will be no development in whatever form and called on all to remain as brothers and sisters as the politics game is now over.
The CSM-SL came out with a formula for Democracy, which reads Election + acceptance of results = legitimacy + popular citizens participation = good governance.
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