The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) has written a strongly worded letter to President Ernest Bai Koroma complaining about the activities of the conduct of the elections and for the replacement of the chairperson of the National Electoral Commission (NEC).
The SLPP’s secretary general, Jacob Jusu Saffa, explained to the press yesterday at their party’s headquarters that at the National Executive Council meeting held over the weekend in Bo it was resolved that the president be written to register their discontentment over the conduct of the elections by NEC and other activities at the commission.
The letter states that SLPP despite seeking an interlocutory order of mandamus through the High Court has lost confidence and trust in the commission as currently constituted.
The letter expresses the manner how the former two commissioners at NEC, Winston Minah and Edward Nyallay representing the south and eastern regions, were dismissed.
It states that the dissociation of the two from the announcements of the results proved to the general public that the electoral process was defective.
“The two commissioners have since been sacked by your government. These consciously calculated and premeditated sackings were instantly followed by the demotion and sacking of key professional and technical staff on the pretext of restructuring the commission; a restructuring that only affected selected staff of the commission,” the letter states further.
The SLPP questions those procedures and violations of the set procedures and notes in the letter that they will not recognize those NEC staff who will be mandated to conduct future public elections.
The SLPP is demanding that the entire NEC commission be dissolved forthwith and new ones sworn in accordance with section 32(3) of the 1991 Constitution, all technical staff who were undeservedly promoted be subjected to a fresh recruitment process by outside bodies such as ECOWAS under the watchful eyes of all political parties and ECOWAS to provide resources and supervises the electoral process leading to the bye-and local council elections.
The letter maintains that, “Your Excellency Sir, the SLPP has resolved that it would consider withholding its participation in future electoral activities towards and including the Bye-Elections and Local Government elections if these demands are not met. The party also considers using legal and other political means to ensure that these demands, which are sine qua non to promoting democracy and consolidating the peace, are met”.