The SLPP did not lose the 2007 elections

Our detractors and our friends have restarted their analyses of why we lost the 2007 elections. Most have suggested that it was because of the divisions that occurred within the party, leading to the exit of Charles Margai and many, if not all of his supporters. He felt that he was cheated out of the leadership even though to date no one has come up with a tangible explanation of how he was cheated.  Unless of course he blames the delegates for not voting him in.  And yet they all have continued to harp on that assumption of cheating. They cannot explain how it could have taken place in an open hall in full view of the contestants and all the delegates. Even with the loss of votes of Margai’s supporters who nearly hailed mainly from the southern region, we did not lose.  (Photo:  Dr. Sama Banya)

I have stated before and will continue to do so until the cows come home. Christiana Thorpe the head of the National Electoral Commission had unilaterally and unlawfully cancelled the votes from 447 polling stations in our stronghold districts of Kailahun and Kenema, alleging over-voting at those polling stations. She has never produced concrete evidence of her allegations. The only two members of the commission with any integrity at the time Winston Minah and Eddie Nyallay had refused to append their signatures to the final result that she had compiled with the aid of the UN’s Victor Angelo together with the Italian Mafioso computer expert Carlos Valenzuela. Those two were immediately sacked by President Koroma immediately he assumed office and contrary to their conditions of service have as far as I am aware, not received their benefits.

In spite of the shameful rigging Christiana Thorpe’s figures did not add up leading to a postponement of the earlier time set for the announcement of the results on September 17. When they tried a second time the figures could not tally but she went ahead and announced them anyway naming Mr. Ernest Bai Koroma as the winner.

We gave notice that we would challenge the matter in court; one of the first things the good lady did was to remove with indecent haste all the figures from the NEC website in order to cover her tracks. Our critics who included not only APC journalists, but also the late Olu Gordon of the Peep News magazine felt that the Thorpe girl was an honourable lady compared to the likes of us who in their words had organized the vote rigging in Kailahun district.

Olu proceeded to refer to me as Osama Banya. We were accused of laying claim that Kailahun district was our stronghold, but  the results of all the bye elections in that district, including all the local government council elections have been won by the SLPP. No other party has a single seat in the district. They included the local government bye election and the Parliamentary bye election in the Upper Bambara and Kissi Tongi chiefdoms respectively, despite the massive infusion of material resources and intimidation.

Only the diehard APC supporters would deny our claim of the district being our stronghold. The cancellation of the votes in those constituencies notwithstanding, we won the votes but lost the result. I must add that Victor Angelo was just the leader and co-planner with Christiana Thorpe but there was an international conspiracy for a regime change involving the British and American envoys.

All the above is not to downplay the need for unity within our ranks because our membership, especially our flag bearer aspirants have given strong indications of their commitment which has nothing to do with old faces as a correspondent in Peep magazine indicated recently.

We are simply waiting for the Supreme Court endorsement of the Consent Judgment and we shall spring into action with our eyes on sharp 12, 2012.

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