By Gbaksondo Khloiloi, Freetown, Sierra Leone
It looks like the main opposition party in Sierra Leone the All People’s Congress (APC) party is afraid of facing the ruling Sierra Leone People’s in the upcoming polls scheduled to be held in a few days’ time on June 24.
Indications are that the SLPP has done a good job of penetrating the APC strong holds of the north and west of the country while the APC has not been able to make any serious impact in the ruling SLPP strongholds in the south and east. Kono district in the east, which is normally neutral ground, is now solidly SLPP because of the many humiliations their leaders had suffered in the past and now at the hands of the APC culminating in the recent burning of the house of Madam Diana Konomanyi (photo), a leading Kono politician.
The APC leaders say they don’t trust the current electoral commission but have gone through all the electoral processes in preparation for the elections but has now made an abrupt turn-around two weeks to the elections.
Lansana Dumbuya , the APC’s Secretary-General, in a recent press statement asked for new voter ID cards although the current ones had been approved a few months ago by his own former party leader Ernest Koroma and the current leader Samura Kamara. It’s too late now, say some observers.
Dumbuya and other APC leaders have been insisting that they want to see the full voters’ register before the elections but the electoral commission says it is impossible to do so due to confidentiality issues. It is one of their duties to protect each voter’s personal data, they said.
An electoral expert told the Patriotic Vanguard that a full voters’ register is not normally displayed for public view in most countries including developed countries. On the day of the elections all a voter has to do is to present their ID card and their data will be verified. If there is a mistake in their data or they do not have an ID card or have lost it they can still vote because there are many ways to identify a voter.
Not all APC supporters support a postponement of the elections and many
have confidence in the country’s electoral commission headed by Mohamed Konneh.
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