By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
Ten parliamentarians of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) have lost their seats after a petition verdict handed down by Justices Komba Kamanda and Mohamed Stevens of the high court of Sierra Leone.
The verdicts, simultaneously announced at the law court building in Freetown, followed petitions filed by 16 former SLPP parliamentary aspirants who were not satisfied with the outcome of the elections in March last year. The petitioners alleged elections malpractices, receiving salaries from the consolidated fund whilst contesting parliamentary seats, and widespread violence meted to them by some supporters of the disqualified parliamentarians.
The lost nine seats, by law, automatically go to the runners-up of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) in the elections. The 10th seat was declared vacant by the judge, who also ordered a bye-election to fill the vacant seat.
The SLPP winners in the petition were due to be sworn in later in the day.
Friday’s development put both APC and SLPP on an almost equal platform in parliament, with the SLPP holding a one-seat majority with 58 MPs against APC’s 57 MPs.
In his ruling, Justice Mohamed Stevens singled out those who lost their seats owing to electoral violence, particularly Kemokoh Conteh who represented a constituency covering Waterloo and its environs in the Western Area Rural district. Justice Stevens said, in his summary, that evidence adduced indicates that violence was perpetrated against the petitioner, Joseph Kanu by alleged supporters of Kemokoh Conteh.
“Photos of partial destruction of the petitioner’s house were tendered in evidence,” the judge said in his ruling. He made reference to the letters addressed to the Human Rights Commission, Office of National Security and the Inspector-General of Police by the petitioner complaining about incidents of violence done to him.
Justice Stevens also blamed the National Electoral Commission and the Sierra Leone Police for not doing justice to both the petitioner and the petitioned by failing to investigate allegations of violence reported to the two institutions.
“I hold that violence was meted to the petitioner and this violence made voters to flee,” the judge stressed. He then warned the police to investigate incidents of violence in future elections, saying: “democracy is a civilized practice all over the world and Sierra Leone is a country governed by the rule of law,” Justice Stevens said.
Justice Steven then ordered the disqualified parliamentarians who have been receiving salaries while contesting to pay back to the consolidated fund the total sum of money they received or risk facing Anti- Corruption Commission investigations.
“The act of receiving salaries from the consolidated fund while contesting is criminal in itself,” he said.
However, the petitions of the remaining six petitioners were dismissed by both judges citing failure to adduce evidence to prove their matters on the balance of probabilities. The judges directed that those parliamentarians whose petitions did not hold should continue to serve as members of parliament until the next general elections. However, the right of the petitioners to appeal the judgment was not ruled out.
The verdicts led to the eruption of violence in Freetown between alleged APC supporters and the police who fired teargas at APC party headquarters.
(c) 2019 Politico Online
