by Fatima Babih, EdD
Kenema, Eastern Sierra Leone, June 25, 2025, the SLPP Women’s Leader election today was meant to celebrate democracy, women’s empowerment, and fair political competition. Instead, it turned into another chapter in the troubling saga of how Fatima Bio hijacks Sierra Leone’s political processes with arrogance, corruption, and sheer intimidation.
In her recent video message where she castrated the SLPP chairman, Prince Harding, calling him shameless and describing his election malpractices, Fatima Bio also stated,
Any election I let go is the one I want to let go.
In other words, the only election in Sierra Leone Fatima Bio does not control and manipulate is the election she chooses not to control and manipulate. Her behavior in Kenema today was proof.
A First Lady Drunk on Power
Fatima Bio, who holds no official role in the election process, marched into the hall like a political warlord, surrounded by armed bodyguards, exuding the confidence of someone who believes the rules do not apply to her.
In a shocking but not surprising display of disrespect for the rule of law, the candidates, delegates and all election participants, Fatima Bio boldly snatched the microphone from the Returning Officer, Lahai Lawrence Leema immediately after he announced a rule that officers and candidates had agreed on. Without any authority or consultation, she immediately overturned the ruling in front of party officials, candidates, and the entire gathering.
The Returning Officer had just announced a reasonable and agreed-upon measure: no cell phones were to be used during voting; a decision made after several candidates raised concerns about electoral integrity.
But for Fatima Bio, electoral integrity stands in the way of her well-oiled vote-rigging machinery.
Sinister Motive for Cell Phone Use
It is no secret that cash-for-vote tactics fuel Fatima Bio’s influence in SLPP elections, it is an open secret that voters can receive up to $2,000 for backing her preferred candidates. But there’s a catch, her payments only come after voters provide their proof of voting for her candidate, and that proof is a photograph of their ballot paper after voting.
By pushing voters to use their phones in the voting booth, Fatima Bio isn’t defending democracy, she’s orchestrating corruption and election rigging. Her interference in Kenema today wasn’t about party membership rights. It was about maintaining control, manipulating outcomes, and ensuring loyalty is rewarded, not through merit but money.
A Special Party Member
Fatima Bio claims she was present to exercise her rights as a party member. But how many ordinary party members enter election halls flanked by heavily armed bodyguards? How many can grab the microphone from election officials and openly undermine the voting process without fear of consequences?
The chilling reality is this: Nobody dares correct Fatima Bio, nobody challenges her. Her armed guards’ presence isn’t just for protection, it’s a weapon of intimidation, silencing dissent before it can even form.
This is not democratic leadership. This is not women’s empowerment. This is political gangsterism wrapped in First Lady privilege.
Democracy Under Attack?
If Fatima Bio behaves this way within her party, strong-arming election officers, intimidating candidates, and openly enabling vote rigging, what hope is left for the national democratic process?
Sierra Leone is sliding towards a dangerous future in which elections are reduced to marketplaces for bribery, threats, and manipulation, and the will of the people is crushed beneath the weight of one woman’s political ambition and unchecked power.
Today it is the SLPP women’s wing election, and tomorrow it’s the next general election. As long as Fatima Bio continues her reign of terrorization and interference, Sierra Leone’s democracy hangs by a thread.
The fate of our nation will be decided in the upcoming 2028 general elections, Sierra Leoneans must think deeply about how to ensure it will be a fair and democratic one. Sierra Leone belongs to its people, not to one family, not to one woman, not to the highest bidder.
MAMA SALONE ~ Lioness of the West Coast 