According to members of the international community that spoke to this press over the weekend, if the SLPP and President Julius Maada Bio fail to convince the APC to take part in his new government, ‘big setbacks await his new regime’.
It must be recalled that the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party decided to boycott participating in governance of the state at local and parliamentary levels after the disputed electoral elections results were announced by the nation’s electoral commission.
By being out of the Sixth Parliament and staying out of city, town and village councils across the country, the APC has rendered the new regime as a one party regime.
Our international friends have said that for countries outside of Sierra Leone to consider congratulating the president or even doing business with Mama Salone, President Bio has to settle the electoral impasse with the opposition APC.
‘Or else there is no government in the world that will be prepared to work with the Sierra Leone Parliament. It will be very difficult to pass trade and other agreements, to pass laws and to even have business dealings with other nations. You can see already that DFID has stopped paying the salary of members of the Judiciary. We also know that a lot of people were reportedly frogmarched out of State House because funding for their salaries had been suspended. It will get worse if President Bio fails to convince the APC to take part in government,’ said a diplomat friend.
However, chances of the APC returning to government are nonexistent at present as Dr Samura Kamara, the party’s leader, is under pressure from local and international supporters including the international community to stand his ground and continue with the boycott until either the electoral commissioner does as is expected and demanded of him by releasing the disaggregated polling data per polling station, or the party engages the courts for a pronouncement of a rerun.
‘But we can also see that the idea for a rerun of the election as proposed by the APC for foreigners to run the process outside the influence of the ECSL is not acceptable by the ruling SLPP. And we don’t see President Bio being willing to step aside so we don’t see how he expects for the international community to take Sierra Leone serious as being ready for business,’ they said.
Although President Bio has gone ahead and named a new cabinet, our international friends have said that they fail to see what impact his appointments would make ‘as Sierra Leone is being considered as a pariah state for the reversal of democracy from a multiparty democracy to a one party state. For there to be a recognised government of Sierra Leone by the international community, we expect for the APC and SLPP to work this problem out’ they added.
Meanwhile, the Sixth Parliament was ushered or sworn in on 18 July with only one Member of Parliament representing the main opposition APC, Honourable Mohamed Bangura of Karene District, being the lone opposition member in Parliament.
