By Our Reporter
A press statement by members of a European Union observer delegation over the weekend has sparked jubilation among opposition supporters and fury from supporters of the ruling government. Social media platforms frequented by Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad are still bristling with comments on the issue.
Government supporters say the EU press statement contains most of the accusations and allegations of the opposition which led to the suspicion that the visitors and the new EU country representative had been manipulated and misinformed by the opposition.
They also claim that the EU headquarters in Freetown itself has several pro-opposition people as employees that may have influenced the report, adding that the problems narrated in the press statement had been in existence since 2007 when the former administration, the APC government, came to power until they lost power in 2018. A government official who wants to remain anonymous, says these allegations are not new and were even made about the former government.
The EU says the Mid-Term census currently underway is not necessary while the government says it is indeed necessary because it is not only intended for elections but to collect data on things like cost of living, size and composition of households around the country and a lot of other information used in economic planning and budgeting. They also argued that it is not illegal but a constitutional provision.
The EU also kicked against a review of boundaries less than two years before an election but government sources told this reporter that the APC did the same thing a few months to the 2018 elections during which they created two new districts in the north and failed to do the same in the south and east with districts that are more densely populated. That APC strategy, they claim, gives them an advantage over the
number of seats they have in parliament because the north is largely pro-APC while the south and east are pro-SLPP. The SLPP plans to correct that anomaly, something that terrifies the APC and other opposition parties, they say.
Many in government believe the new EU man and the delegation are naive and ignorant about local Sierra Leone politics and need proper information on the intricacies and dynamics involved from independent sources.
Photo credit: EU, Sierra Leone
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