RIGGED CHIEFDOM ELECTIONS: A WORRYING SIGN FOR 2007

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 FREETOWN 000681 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/W, DRL, INR E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/17/2016 TAGS: PGOV KDEM SL SUBJECT: RIGGED CHIEFDOM ELECTIONS: A WORRYING SIGN FOR 2007 Classified By: Ambassador Thomas N. Hull, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) On August 12, a new Mandingo paramount chief was crowned in the predominantly Limba Biriwa Chiefdom. The election was preceded by a dispute over eligible electors, a court injunction, a refusal by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to oversee the elections, and Limba-Mandingo violence. The Government asserted its authority to hold elections without NEC oversight. The letter of the law may be on government's side, but the political manipulation of ethnic tensions is a worrying sign. Although the Government asserts that it is trying to make the chiefdom election system fair, its intervention to ensure the election of a politically supportive paramount chief makes their motives suspect and shows how the Government is using its incumbency to ensure re-election in 2007. End Summary. -------------- Paramount Chiefs: Ruling House Descendents Reflect Ethnic, Political Affinities -------------- ¶2. (U) Biriwa chiefdom, in the northern part of Sierra Leone (Bombali District),is predominantly (85 percent) Limba, Christian, and affiliated with the opposition All People's Congress (APC) Party. The other 15 percent of Biriwa's inhabitants are Mandingo and Fullah, both predominantly Muslim. President Kabbah, of the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP),is Mandingo. Limbas are Sierra Leone's third largest ethnic group and enjoyed prominence when Siaka Stevens' APC party was in power. Current APC parliamentary minority leader and presidential hopeful Ernest Bai Koroma's mother, a Limba, hails from Biriwa Limba chiefdom, and there are no Limbas in the current SLPP cabinet. ¶3. (U) There are two ruling houses in Biriwa Limba Chiefdom that the Limbas recognize -- the Contehs and the Kalawahs, both Limba families. Paramount chiefs are elected for a life term, and when a chief dies, elections for his replacement are preceded by a Declaration of Rights ceremony. Anyone declaring their right to run for paramount chief needs to trace his lineage to one of the chiefdom's ruling houses. All previous paramount chiefs have been Limbas, although Mandingoes contested elections in the past. (Note: Women are not permitted to become paramount chiefs in the northern part of Sierra Leone, although they occasionally do so in the south. End Note.) -------------- Something Smells Rotten in Makeni -------------- ¶4. (U) The Biriwa Chiefdom elections have been a point of contention between the Limba and Mandingo communities ever since March, when the Ministry of Local Government released a revised chiefdom councilors' list (i.e., list of eligible voters for chiefdom elections) just ahead of the elections. The new list omitted 36 ceremonial chiefs, 33 of whom were ethnic Limba, and added 22 names, all of whom were Mandingo. The additional Mandingo names were added in the Bombali district capital of Makeni without the knowledge of the majority Limbas. (Note: Tribal Authorities -- people who are able to collect taxes from at least 20 taxpayers -- are chiefdom councilors. Tribal Authorities do not have to be from ruling houses. We were told that ceremonial chiefs (women leaders, opinion leaders, etc.),have also been included on the Biriwa Limba chiefdom councilors' lists since the 1960's even though they are not Tribal Authorities, but the Government disputes this. End Note.) -------------- Limbas Protest, Elections Postponed -------------- ¶5. (U) The Limbas were not happy when they saw the revised chiefdom councilors' list, and they were furious when Dr. Issa M. Sheriff, a Mandingo, declared his right to run in the paramount chieftaincy election by tracing his eligibility through the Sheriff ruling house, which the Limbas do not recognize. The Limbas assert that in order to be eligible to run, he would have to claim his eligibility to do so under his maternal lineage, which is tied to the Conteh (Limba) FREETOWN 00000681 002 OF 004 ruling house. ¶6. (U) Disapproval of Sheriff's candidacy caused angry Limbas to violently disrupt attempts to hold Declaration of Rights ceremonies in May and June. During the third ceremony, six Limba aspirants refused to participate, leaving Sheriff as the sole candidate. ¶7. (U) Elections were first scheduled for July 14 and then rescheduled for July 28. On July 26, the High Court granted an injunction to postpone the elections until the dispute was cleared up. The elections may have gone ahead anyway, but on July 28, a Limba women's demonstration forced a postponement of the elections. On August 2, the High Court set aside the injunction, citing a 1961 law that prohibits interference with chiefdom elections. -------------- -------------- Government Wants to Move Forward, but NEC Refuses -------------- -------------- ¶8. (U) On August 2, NEC Chairman Christiana Thorpe sent a team of women to Biriwa chiefdom to hear the Limba women's grievances, which included inconsistency in procedures and process, unclear information, the imposition of a new ruling house on the chiefdom, and the marginalization of women. (Note: Women who were on the chiefdom councilors' list as ceremonial chiefs -- most likely representatives of the women's secret society, were among those removed from the list. End Note.) On August 7, Minister of Local Government Sidique Brima traveled to Biriwa Chiefdom with Thorpe in an attempt to clarify some of the issues raised. At the meeting, it was agreed that the elections would be postponed until the the issues were resolved; however, on August 9, Brima announced on the radio that the elections would be held on August 11. ¶9. (U) After work hours on August 9, the NEC received a letter from the Ministry of Local Government requesting that the NEC conduct elections on August 11, but the NEC refused, citing the court injunction, the controversy over the chiefdom councilors' list, and the risk of violence. President Kabbah's office then sent Southern Provincial Secretary Salia Magona to the NEC in person to request that SIPDIS the NEC hand over voting materials so that the Ministry of Local Government could conduct the election without the NEC. Thorpe refused and held a press conference on August 11, announcing the NEC's refusal and justifying it with excerpts from the 1991 National Constitution that grant NEC the authority to conduct and supervise local elections independently. -------------- Preceded by Violence, Elections Go Ahead -------------- ¶10. (U) On August 11, there was confusion in Biriwa chiefdom over whether the elections would actually take place, and both Mandingos and Limbas were prepared for confrontation. The press reported that five truckloads of police deployed to Kamabai, where the elections were supposed to be held. UN Military Observers saw 150 Mandingoes assembled in Karina (a predominantly Limba village) preparing to march toward Kamabai. They also observed some Limba youths waiting further down the road to attack them. By the time police were notified and reacted, the two groups had already met and were stoning and stabbing one another. The Mandingos set a Limba house on fire and a nearby church was looted and damaged. Reports vary, but as many as 14 people were injured during the fighting. The Mandingos finished their march to Kamabai under police escort, but no election took place. ¶11. (U) On August 12, Magona reportedly used paper cards instead of ballots to hold a hastily-organized election without NEC oversight. Sheriff won with 139 of 140 votes, but 333 other councilors who were on the list did not vote. News reports say that the chiefdom councilors who voted were predominantly from Karina, and Magona did not inform councilors from the other sections of the chiefdom about the change in election dates. -------------- It Ain't Over Till It's Over -------------- ¶12. (C) The situation in Biriwa has been tense but quiet since the elections. The Limbas plan to hold their own FREETOWN 00000681 003 OF 004 elections on August 18 to contest the legitimacy of Sheriff's victory, but there are no indications that violence will take place again. Rumors that 1,000 Limba women are coming to Freetown to demonstrate naked in the streets have not been confirmed, but it is clear that the controversy is not yet over. ¶13. (U) President Kabbah's office issued a press release on August 15 asserting its right to oversee chiefdom elections through the Ministry of Local Government, defending the legitimacy of the Sheriff ruling house, and appealing to Sierra Leoneans to look past ethnic differences and realize that intermarriages have made it impossible to really determine tribal affiliations. -------------- Political Manipulation of Chiefs: The Past is Prologue -------------- ¶14. (C) The Government appears to be within its right to hold paramount chieftaincy elections according to the Protectorate law (which dates back to 1933). However, the NEC has a strong precedent for its case, since it has been running chiefdom elections since 2002 at the written request of Vice President Berewa. The institution of the paramount chieftaincy has always been a political tool for the government of the day to influence voters, and the SLPP government is following the tradition in fine form by using its incumbency to press for a sympathetic paramount chief in the north -- traditionally APC territory. The Biriwa chiefdom election came right after Vice President Berewa arranged a meeting with 60 paramount chiefs from the north to allow them the "opportunity" to declare their support for his candidacy in 2007. ¶15. (C) The Paramount Chiefs understand their role vis a vis the government in power. Kandeh Luseni, paramount chief of Sella Limba Chiefdom in northern Sierra Leone, told PolOff that chiefs understand that if they support the government, then they will receive benefits in the form of development projects. If they are seen showing support for or even allowing access to opposition parties, they are punished. One paramount chief, he said, was harrassed because one of his family members had joined the SLPP breakaway party, Charles Margai's People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC). There was so much pressure on the family, the chief's family member saw the error of his ways and returned to the SLPP fold. ¶16. (C) Luseni told PolOff that he is hopeful that the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) will soon release its code of conduct for the election that will require the paramount chiefs to play a neutral role in the elections and give them a chance to defend themselves against charges of disloyalty to the SLPP. (Comment: Unfortunately, the Chairman of the newly constituted PPRC has been out of the country on extended medical leave, and the body has not been as active as expected. This will hopefully change now that he has resigned. End Comment.) -------------- Comment -------------- ¶17. (C) The Limba anger over the Biriwa elections is not only over the Government's manipulation of the chiefdom councilors' list, but a broader feeling of marginalization in the current political environment. The SLPP's manipulation of the Biriwa Chiefdom elections is disappointing but comes as no surprise given the country's history. Sierra Leone's peace is still fragile, though, and it can ill afford the inflammation of ethnic tensions at this stage in its recovery from war. It is a hopeful sign that the NEC stood up to the government's pressure to hold elections. If the 2007 presidential and parliamentary elections are to be even remotely free and fair, the NEC and the international community must keep a close eye on the SLPP to limit its use of the incumbency to manipulate the political landscape. One idea that has been floated among the international community is to put a moratorium on all chiefdom elections until after the 2007. USAID-funded civic education will be an important component of keeping the government honest, but changing voters' understanding of their power as citizens is a long-term process. In the near term, it is critical that the PPRC become more active so that the NEC is not the only body attempting to hold the SLPP government accountable for its actions. FREETOWN 00000681 004 OF 004 HULL