Sierra Leone Cannot Trust APC To Uphold Democracy

Can Sierra Leone trust the APC Party to uphold her democracy?  The APC Party by unconstitutionally allowing president Koroma to not only install himself as party Chairman and Leader For Life but also singlehandedly selecting the party presidential candidate has by so doing lost the moral suasion and standing as a democratic institution.

Despite expressed desires and campaigning by various party leaders, including his Vice President, to be the Party Flagbearer, the Party convention in Makeni became a caricature of a mini Chinese Communist People’s Congress.

The Chairman For Life was allowed to singlehandedly select and appoint the Party Flagbearer, Dr. Samura Kamara – in contravention of the Political Parties Act, the Electoral Laws Act, the Political Parties Registration Commission Act, and our national constitution.

I am not sure if it was only an issue of incumbency that allowed for such breakdown in the APC party Flag bearer election/selection process. But I have noticed a real difference between how the SLPP and other political parties and the APC party have handled the issue of succession and flagbearer elections in a democratic environment.

The membership of the APC have exhibited great subservience to the dictatorial tendencies of their Chairman for Life and have stuck with their Man – no matter the political hazards. Their failure to fractionate and or divide, or at the very least express disappointment at the apparent hijacking by the president and the undemocratic nature of electing their flag bearer must give pause to ordinary Sierra Leoneans as we head to the polls.

Why a party that has violated all the tenets of a democratic political institution, by not only installing a Chairman for Life but by especially selecting its Flag bearer without elections, can now be campaigning for a third straight five-year term in governance, should not be countenanced by the electorate. A party that does not believe and practice internal democracy cannot be counted upon to uphold our nation’s fledgling democracy.

By: Kortor Kamara