By William
Yaw Owusu
Thursday
April 05, 2018
Former President John Dramani Mahama appears to have
‘angered’ a section of the electorate in Sierra Leone, particularly the ruling
APC supporters, over a wild allegation that he interfered in their election
which ended last weekend.
They are accusing him of helping to ‘rig’ the
election in favour of the opposition candidate of the Sierra Leone People's
Party (SLPP), Julius Maada Bio, a retired Brigadier even though the National Electoral Commission (NEC) in the West African country
is yet to officially declare a winner in the run-off.
Newspaper
Allegation
Some newspapers aligned to the ruling All People's
Congress (APC) have not been charitable to the ex-president, as they are all
accusing him of ‘scheming’ to get the opposition candidate to be elected over
the ruling party’s candidate, Dr. Samura Kamara, who has been Minister of
Foreign Affairs since 2012 in what they termed ‘regime change.’
Mr Mahama was in Sierra Leone - a country that
suffered many years of brutal civil war - as the chairman of the Commonwealth
Election Observer Group.
The general elections entered into a run-off after
the two presidential candidates had failed to secure the 55% of the votes
required to win outright.
In the first round held on March 7, the opposition
leader, Mr. Maada Bio, narrowly led the contest with 1,097,482 - representing
43.26% as against the ruling party’s candidate, Dr. Kamara, who polled
1,082,748 - translating into about 42.68% of the votes.
Incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma is not running
for another term, as he is constitutionally ineligible, having served the
maximum 10 years in office.
Results
Compilation
Just as the second round results were being compiled
by the NEC, a heated argument has ensued over the conduct of some of the
international election observers, and the ruling party’s supporters in
particular are pointing accusing fingers at Ghana’s ex-president, John Mahama.
They claim he is maneuvering to have the opposition
leader become president.
The ruling APC posted a comment at 2:53 pm on
Tuesday, describing ex- President Mahama and another as “African puppets of the
west,” and wanted the Ghanaian leader out of that country.
“It’s time to resist neo-colonialism. We are a
sovereign state. UK High Commissioner should keep his hands to his pants…don’t
put it on our elections. And SpongeBob square head John Mahama should leave our
country. These African puppets of the West!” the post indicated.
Mahama
Hits Back
Mr. Mahama has since returned from Freetown, Sierra
Leone, but has not taken kindly to the allegation which is trending on social
media from both home and abroad.
He said in a Facebook post yesterday, “I arrived in
Accra this evening to a flurry of social media stories and other worrying
reports attributed to officials of the Sierra Leonean Government that I had cut
short my mission and left Freetown because of my support for one of the
candidates and political parties in the just-ended presidential run-off
election.
“As chair of the Commonwealth Observer Group to the
Sierra Leone election, I was officially due to complete my mission and leave
Sierra Leone on Monday, April 02, 2018, via Kenya Airways as per the ticket
bought and issued to me by the Commonwealth Secretariat in London.
“Following multiple issues that arose just when the
tallying of the result from the run-off began, I was requested through a call
from the Secretary General of The Commonwealth, Baroness Scotland, to stay one
more day to work with my colleague Heads of International Observer Missions to resolve
issues that had stalled the tallying process.”
The former president explained further, “My
departure was, therefore, delayed until Tuesday, April 03, 2018.”
Extension
Of Stay
He said that with the extension in mind, he joined
his colleagues in multiple meetings with the political stakeholders on April
01, 2018 until well after midnight “to achieve consensus in order to have the
tallying process proceed.”
He added, “All these meetings were chaired by
Professor Amos Sawyerr, Head of the ECOWAS Observation Mission.”
According to Mr Mahama, “Just before my departure
from Freetown, I joined my colleague former presidents Amos Sawyer of Liberia,
Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa and the Special Representative of the UN
Secretary General, Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, at the Presidential Lodge to brief
President Ernest Bai Koroma on our efforts in reaching an agreement between the
political parties and the National Electoral Commission in order that the
tallying process could proceed.”
Presidential
Farewell
The ex-president said, “I bid farewell to President
Koroma before I drove to the sea coach to leave for Lungi Airport. My departure
from Freetown was not sudden and when I bid farewell to President Koroma, I did
not get any indication in word or deed that I was not wanted anymore in his
country.”
He said he left because his agreement with The
Commonwealth had ended.
No
Capacity
Mr. Mahama said that international election
observers have no capacity “to change the will of the people, in any election,”
adding emphatically that “I, John Dramani Mahama, have no interest in who
governs the people of Sierra Leone.
“The long nights, early mornings, long meetings,
diplomatic shuttles were all aimed at helping Sierra Leone choose their leader
freely, maintain the peace and consolidate their democracy.”
There are strong indications that the ruling party’s
candidate in the election has been floored, leading to the allegations of
meddling in the internal elections of that country.
According to opposition
party SLPP, its candidate won the country's
presidential run-off based on its own tally of the results.
Sierra Leone People's Party leader
Julius Maada Bio obtained 54.11 percent of the votes, while Samura Kamara of
the ruling All People's Congress (APC) won 45.89 percent.
"We are confident that retired
Brigadier Julius Maada Bio is the next president of Sierra Leone," Jacob
Saffa, the SLPP's election management chairman, told a news conference in the
capital, Freetown, on Monday.
The run-off was held on Saturday.
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