Alusine sesay: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 8 February 2026:
At the All People’s Congress (APC) party’s mammoth gathering held at the Atooga Stadium in Freetown, one striking feature of the address delivered by the party’s Acting Chairman, Pa-Yansaneh, was his persistent and emphatic invocation of a single term: TRIPARTITE.
Indeed, the word was repeatedly emphasised—TRIPARTITE, TRIPARTITE, and TRIPARTITE. and it formed the conceptual backbone of his entire speech if you ask me.
He stated that his remarks were intended not only for domestic political consumption, but also to draw the attention of the third-party signatories to the Tripartite Agreement, as well as the wider international community, to developments that have unfolded over the past several months.
According to Pa-Yansaneh, the government of Maada Bio has persistently stalled the implementation of the Tripartite Recommendations, and he asserted that the APC would no longer acquiesce to such delay.
However, this raises a necessary question: How could the Bio administration be expected to act with urgency when a significant proportion of the APC’s own executive leadership INITIALLY demonstrated a conspicuous lack of confidence in the Tripartite framework and failed to accord this critical document the seriousness it warranted?
Instead, it was diluted, trivialised, and treated with regrettable disregard.
Indeed, matters deteriorated to such an extent that, within certain circles of the APC executive and party membership, any reference to the Tripartite process was met with ridicule, as though those who spoke of it were irrational.
In doing so, they failed to grasp that the Tripartite Recommendations arguably constitute the most consequential national governance document since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Report and the Constitution of Sierra Leone.
For many within the APC leadership, however, the discourse was reduced to a single individual, Dr Samura Kamara.
Even though Dr Kamara was the principal architect of the Tripartite process, he was nonetheless removed as the APC’s Chief Negotiator, for reasons known only to those responsible.
This decision proved both shortsighted and strategically damaging.
In contrast, the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) under Maada Bio demonstrated a clear understanding of the significance of the Tripartite document, not least because it is a signatory to it.
The Bio government fully aware that every clause within the TRIPARTITE document is ACTIONABLE, ENFORCEABLE, and intended to be IMPLEMENTED to the letter.
It is well aware of the document’s far-reaching implications.
But The APC executive, however, mired in persistent internal conflict, personal ambition, and self-serving political calculations, effectively abandoned this VITAL NATIONAL INSTRUMENT.
In their misjudgement, they reduced the Tripartite process to a personality dispute, failing to appreciate that the Tripartite is not about Dr Samura Kamara. It is not even about the APC or the SLPP. The Tripartite framework is about Sierra Leone itself.
This is precisely why the international community invested millions of US-dollars to ensure that the process yielded concrete, implementable recommendations capable of stabilising the nation’s democratic trajectory.
It has now belatedly dawned on sections of the APC executive that they ought to have exerted sustained and uncompromising pressure on the Bio administration by focusing exclusively on the full implementation of the Tripartite Recommendations, before pursuing any other political agenda.
Regrettably, they failed to do so.
Instead, their attention remained FIXATED on the 2028 general elections, even as the very document capable of securing a decisive electoral victory was wilfully neglected. an irony of the highest order.
Virtually every procedural safeguard and institutional reform required for credible governance is ENCAPSULATED within the Tripartite Recommendations. The document constitutes nothing less than a national roadmap.
As Pa-Yansaneh himself acknowledged during his speech, the Tripartite Recommendations clearly stipulate the methodology and timelines for conducting a national census. Guidelines which the Bio administration has deliberately ignored.
The provisions concerning the preparation of a credible voters’ register, election management protocols, constitutional amendment procedures, and the criteria for the appointment of Electoral Commissioners. again, provisions of which the Bio administration has deliberately ignored.
Furthermore, the Tripartite framework addresses the release of political detainees, the treatment of displaced persons, comprehensive electoral reforms, and measures to enhance the credibility of the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) as a genuine instrument for resolving the country’s electoral challenges. again, full protocols the Bio administration deliberately ignored.
It also outlines recommended stages for appointing the Chairperson of the Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC). In each of these areas, according to Pa-Yansaneh, the Bio administration has either ignored or paid mere lip service to its obligations.
He further expressed the APC’s profound disappointment at these developments, noting that appeal case files relating to APC members indicted by the Commissions of Inquiry have allegedly gone missing within the Secretariat, thereby undermining justice for affected party members.
Pa-Yansaneh also criticised the government’s UNILATERAL approach to implementation, emphasising that even the limited progress made has occurred WITHOUT consultation or engagement with the APC or other political stakeholders, again in direct contradiction of the Tripartite roadmap.
He stated unequivocally that there is currently NO functional Tripartite communication channel between the APC and the government, describing the situation as a complete communication breakdown.
According to him, the government’s Chief Negotiator and the Tripartite Secretariat under his authority have persistently ignored the APC’s attempts at engagement, treating the party with open contempt. another clear violation of the Tripartite spirit and letter.
He further noted that Parliament has FAILED to establish a committee on electoral matters, despite this being a specific Tripartite recommendation.
Pa-Yansaneh also condemned the government’s deliberate postponement of the 2025 census in order to circumvent the Tripartite’s requirement of a 24-month interval before census data can be used for constituency delimitation.
Even more troubling, he alleged that Statistics Sierra Leone intends to rely on the fraudulent and disputed 2021 census data to redraw electoral boundaries ahead of the 2028 elections, in direct contravention of Tripartite provisions.
So you see? The central question, therefore, is unmistakable: Can the significance of the Tripartite Recommendations be overstated? Everything in Pa-Yansaneh’s address revolved around TRIPARTITE, TRIPARTITE, and TRIPARTITE.
Yet, despite this reality, the document was denied the unwavering attention it deserved for months, largely due to internal APC political grievances surrounding its architect.
While party actors busily campaign for 2028, the very instrument capable of safeguarding electoral integrity and delivering victory for the APC is being dangerously sidelined.
The Tripartite Recommendations remain the single most effective safeguard against a recurrence of the electoral controversies witnessed in 2023.
Only through the full and faithful implementation of all eighty-four plus one recommendations, without dilution or selective compliance, can Sierra Leone hope to conduct genuinely credible general elections in 2028.
Within that document lies the complete blueprint for democratic legitimacy and electoral justice in Sierra Leone.
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