PRESS RELEASE
The Committee for Coalition on Governance, SaLone
(COGS) has sent a letter to the Chief Justice of
Sierra Leone, Dr Ade Renner-Thomas, apprizing him as
head of the Supreme Court of actions they are taking
as citizens of Sierra Leone to ensure that there will
be a peaceful transition from the Kabbah regime to
whatever regime is to follow.
In the letter signed by its Executive Chair, Dr
Jonathan Peters, the Coalition attempts to explain
that the purpose of initiating contact with Dr
Christiana Thorpe, Chief Commissioner, National
Electoral Commission, and now the follow-up with the
Chief Justice of Sierra Leone is to help manage an
actual or impending crisis, not to precipitate one.
Peters says that at the present time, the only fully
active forces in the Sierra Leone establishment are
the judiciary as the third branch of governance in
Sierra Leone (the other two being the parliament whose
term has ended and the presidency that is in abeyance
because President Kabbah’s term has ended) and the
National Electoral Commission (NEC) whose role is to
administer the Presidential Election and declare a
successor to President Kabbah.
Peters says in his letter that there is a crisis in Sierra Leone, actual or impending, although the perception of a crisis is lacking and he cites in his letter the definition of
crisis management he and the COGS are drawing on in
making this civic move: “Coordinated actions taken to
diffuse crises, prevent their escalation into armed
conflict and/or contain resulting hostilities. The
crisis management machinery provides decision-makers
with the necessary information and arrangements to use
appropriate instruments (political, diplomatic,
economic, and military) in a timely and coordinated
manner.”
Dr Peters explains that his reason for writing to the
Chief Justice is that, while Christiana Thorpe, as NEC
Chief Commissioner, has not officially responded to
his request for a National Consultative Conference,
she did intimate to him in a telephone conversation
while she was in Kenema on July 17, 2007 that his
request for a National Consultative Conference (NCC)
was “not relevant.” Peters saw no point in pursuing
the matter with her from that point on and he declined
to officially forward to her a follow-up to his 3
July, 2007 letter, preferring to write to the Chief
Justice and send her an unsigned copy. In a letter to
the Chief Justice he cites the relevant portion of
“The Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991”
(http://www.statehouse-sl.org/constitution/index.htm
or
http://www.sierra-leone.org/Laws/constitution1991.pdf).
43. A Presidential election shall take place—
a. where the office of President is to become vacant
by effluxion of time and the President continues in
office after the beginning of the period of four
months ending with the date when his term of office
would expire by effluxion of time, during the first
three months of that period;
b. in any other case, during the period of three
months beginning with the date when the office of
President becomes vacant.
In the view of Jonathan Peters and the Committee for
Coalition on Governance, SaLone, President Kabbah
deliberately used Section 43. b. instead of 43.a.
when he, instead of the legitimate Chief Commissioner
charged with that function, announced the original 28
July, 2007 date for the Presidential and Parliamentary
Elections. Had Kabbah followed the Constitution, the
elections would have been held between 14 January and
14 April, 2007, well before the rainy season, and all
issues would have been resolved by May 14, 2007.
According to this interpretation, Kabbah has not only
given himself an extra three months unconstitutionally
but is the actual architect of the looming crisis in
that the three months he has given himself will expire
on August 14 without a successor being announced and
he will leave behind a vacuum of power.
The Coalition on Governance, SaLone (COGS) is poised
to work with a group in Sierra Leone on the issue as
much depends on what Sierra Leoneans in-country will
do in the next few weeks regarding these revelations.
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