Part of the reasons for the 10 year horrendous rebel carnage in Sierra Leone was the exclusion and gross marginalization of the country outside the capital city Freetown. When democratic governance was restored there were both internal and external pressures on government to be more inclusive to establish its legitimacy. So in 2004, the local Government Act was approved thereby establishing Local Government Bodies throughout the country, after some 32 years. This was a very laudable initiative by the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) administration of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
Six years on, assessments showed that the local government initiative had taken firm root. The successes were feared by the national/central government that the local councils might challenge the political hegemony at the top. In 2009, contrary to the Local Government act, the minister of local government advised the chiefs not to share taxes with the Councils. This undermined the fiscal viability of the Councils. In 2010, the APC Government reintroduced the District Officers as representatives of the Central government. The opposition and Civil society at the time thought the Officers will influence the Councils and further undermine their fiscal viability. The Central government thought this was in place as a direct link to the central government and the chiefs.
The Local government Act 2004 has been in force for some 16 years and is yet to be reviewed although there is a Decentralization Policy. What perhaps keep stalling the progress towards bringing new initiatives into local governance is the ever mounting rancor between the SLPP and the APC. It is so likely that the APC who are currently in opposition may oppose most of the SLPP Governments proposals on the review of local governance. From current arguments it looks like there are salient points on both sides although the government’s main reason of diffusing political violence sounds quite plausible given past experiences.
The main bone of contention is the recommendation that local government elections run on non-partisan basis thereby allowing space for development. Looking at it from the point of citizen numbers for elections; you might think it will disadvantage parties’ strongholds. Fair enough but we have witnessed in recent times how a localized ward or Constituency election turns into a big chaos. Also we have seen in several bye-elections where the incumbent government has won in areas that could be rightly called no-go areas for the incumbent government.
To some extent the whole non-partisan local governance political scenario smirks dicey because although the national elections are in 2023, currently political parties are doing their primaries leading up to the election of top leadership positions. Now if someone is elected in the primaries under the aegis of a particular party, are we saying that if the next local government elections are held on non- partisan basis, that person will automatically relinquish his loyalty to the party on whose ticket he was elected? If yes how easy will it be? As Emmerson sings, we know ourselves. Even the very few that had been genuinely acting non-partisan might be placed in some party or the other on the basis of tribalism or association with politicians.
If our main objective of going non-partisan for local government elections is to simmer down the current torturing rancor between especially the two main parties, then let us go for it. After all there is actually nothing to lose; it’s an experiment worth doing.
Some countries have tied moving from partisan local governance to non-partisan local governance and vice versa. An example of a country in West Africa is Ghana, a country Sierra Leone compares a lot of political notes with.
A Study was recently done by Robin Richards an Independent Research Consultant on the topic: The effect of non-partisan elections and decentralization on local government performance in January, 2021.
Richards posits that there are two reported examples in Sub-Saharan Africa of non-partisan elections that delink candidates from political parties during election campaigns. This finding was supported through the opinions solicited from experts on African elections and local government. He notes that the use of non-partisan elections to improve performance and democratic accountability at the level of government is not common. He goes on to say that Decentralization policies have the effect of democratizing and transferring power and therefore few central governments implement it fully. In Africa decentralization is favored because it is often used as a cover for central control.
In Ghana Key structures of local government in Ghana are District Assemblies. District Assemblies arose from the system of government created under President Rawlings after a military coup in the 1980s. The coup resulted in the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) coming to power and the implementation of a populist agenda. District assemblies were based on the idea of populist direct democracy, involving all citizens. District assemblies were established by law as non-partisan local governance structures
With the advent of multiparty democracy in Ghana in 1992, the system of election of nonpartisan district assembly members continued. In reality, district assemblies are partisan entities because the President appoints district chief executives and a third of district assembly members. The remaining district assembly members not appointed by the president are also linked to the ruling party.
In this situation, decentralization is used as a means of ruling party control by co-opting local actors, through offering them a role in local government. Informal ties to the ruling party also bind district assembly members to the ruling party and weaken the independent non-partisan nature of assembly members. Such informal ties include ethnic bonds between the ruling party and elected district assembly members. Assembly members are unpaid but must still fund their own election campaigns. The shortage of resources at this level has led to claims that candidates secretly fund their campaigns through political parties and other influential people. This further undermines the claim that assembly members are non-partisan. Although the local government system in Ghana is supposed to be bottom-up in its approach, by developing community plans from the unit committee level, the absence of funds at this level, means that development plans emanate from the top down, via the ruling party, through district assemblies.
All these emanated from the fact that Ghana has had a turbulent political history marked by military takeovers. After independence and the creation of a one-party state under Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana experienced six different military regimes between 1966 and 1992. Notwithstanding these political changes, Ghana’s current model of decentralized local government has persisted since the 1980’s when it was introduced along with many other developing countries under a Structural Adjustment Program to reform the public sector.
Interestingly Sierra Leone’s immediate post-colonial period started also in a turbulent way with elections, coups, counter-coups and later the declaration of a one-party state; with the All People’s Congress (APC) as the sole recognized Party. Under the One-Party regime, Committees at District levels were abolished and a new arrangement put in place that was directly appointed by the Presidency. There were various hand-picked APC Committees of Management whose loyalty was solely to the Head of State, President Siaka Stevens. So in effect these Committees of Management more or less belonging to the APC. This is why at the return to democratic muli-party rule even when it was an SLPP Government that re-instituted the local Governance system, most citizens remained APC. This explains why over the years the SLPP has been strenuously trying to win local governance positions especially outside their so-called strongholds.
The Bio Government has done tremendously well to infiltrate some key APC strongholds thereby making the race to State House in 2023 a much more stiff encounter.
It has been very difficult to get the APC and SLPP to work together for the good of the country and the debate over the suggested non-partisan local governance since to further widen the gulf. If it goes through Parliament it will still remain to be seen how everything pans out. Like I said before parties are already electing members of their lower level executives most of whom are part of the local governance system. Also whether it will simmer down political tensions remain to be seen. What we should hope for is whatever policies and systems that will bring lasting cohesion and peace in our Mama Sierra Leone.
By Beny SAM.