Postindependence Politics
The prime minister had promised that elections would be held shortly after independence, and they were held in May 1962. In contrast to the violence and jailings in 1961, the elections took place in a peaceful atmosphere, and the campaign was fairly conducted. The APC was well organized in the north and won twelve of the eighteen seats there as well as four in Freetown. The SLPIM won all four seats in Kono District, and its legislators associated themselves with the APC in parliament. The SLPP. however, gained the support of all fourteen members elected as independents and won the remaining twenty-eight seats outright. It was thus able to count forty-two votes to the opposition's twenty in the House of Representatives.
Margai remained prime minister until his death in 1964. He was succeeded by his half brother as prime minister and as party leader. The elections and the positions adopted afterward by the APC in opposition to government policy showed clearly that the political division of the country had developed along class lines but had ethnic and regional overtones. The chiefs and well-educated were on one side, opposed by the leaders who could mobilize the support of the commoners and city workers on the other. Ethnic and regional divisions flowed primarily from the fact that the most active commoners were in the north, where dislike of the chiefs was much more intense.
Divisions were further hardened after Albert Margai came to office. He was not the skilled arbitrator his brother had been and opened himself to criticism on many sides. Even other close supporters of the SLPP were alarmed by his efforts to concentrate all power in the hands of close associates, particularly after he made clear his desire to solidify his power by creating a one-party state. Many of his actions created a fear of Mende domination among other groups.
As a result the 1967 elections found the SLPP declining in popularity and poorly prepared for the campaign. The APC had increased in popularity and organizational ability, as it demonstrated in district council elections. The parliamentary elections were held in two phases, the first on March 17 to select popularly chosen members for the slightly enlarged House of Representatives, the second on March 21 to choose the holders of the twelve seats reserved for the paramount chiefs chosen by the district councils.
On March 17 the APC won thirty-two seats to the SLPP’s twenty-eight; six independents held the balance. The SLPP seats went entirely to those elected from the southern areas where the Mende predominated. The governor general, Sir Henry Lightfoot Boston, was a Creole judge selected in 1964 by Milton Margai. The election results were so close that it was not clear whom Boston would select as prime minister, particularly since the twelve chiefs’ seats remained to be decided.
Boston first requested Margai and Stevens to form a coalition government, a request Stevens refused. When four of the six independents indicated their opposition to Margai, Boston swore in Stevens on March 21 without awaiting the results of the chiefs’ election. which could still have given a small majority to the SLPP.
At this point there began three successive military interventions into the country’s political life. The commander of the 1,200-man army. Brigadier David Lansana, a Mende closely allied with Margai, declared martial law on the pretext that by failing to await the vote of the chiefs Boston had violated the constitution. Lansana called for a meeting of all those newly elected, including the chiefs, to vote on their choice of prime minister. The meeting was called for March 23, 1967.
Reaction to Lansana's actions was intense, particularly in the north. On March 23 a group of senior army and police officers intervened, forming what they termed an interim government, and arrested Lansana. Stevens fled into neighboring Guinea. Clearly copying precedents set the previous year in Ghana and Nigeria, the group of officers labeled themselves the National Reformation Council (NRC). They proclaimed their objective to be avoidance of an outbreak of interethnic violence. Corruption under the Albert Margai regime was to be investigated and other major governmental problems attacked without the “inefficiencies” of a democratic political process; then the government was to be returned to civilian rule as soon as possible.
The civilian National Advisory Council and later the Civilian Rule Committee were set up to involve the people in the government’s de- cisionmaking and planning for a return to civilian rule. The NRC, however, was unable to win the support of the educated civilians. Reliance was placed on the civil service despite initial accusations that it too should be investigated for corrupt practices. Commoners and chiefs alike were alienated by the decision of the NRC. Northerns complained that the NRC was a form of continued Mende dominance because four of its eight members were Mende, although two were Creole and the other two, including the chairman, Temne.
On April 17, 1968, NRC rule was brought to an end by a revolt of the noncommissioned officers and enlisted men of the army. Nearly all officers and ranking police were jailed. Nine days later Stevens returned to the country along with other APC leaders who had gone into exile with him. The long-prorogued parliament was convened and Stevens sworn in again as prime minister.
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