WILL THE SLPP BOYCOTT THE KAILAHUN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION? By Abdul Fonti The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has announced that it would be conducting two bye-elections – parliamentary and local council bye elections - on the 28th September 2013. The said elections would be conducted to replace the deceased parliamentarian of Constituency 001 in Kailahun District and the deceased councilor of Ward 229 in the Tonkolili District. According to the NEC timetable, the various political parties are expected to file in the names of their candidates for the forthcoming elections between August 12 and 27. Campaigns commence on the 9th September 2013 and end few days ahead of the elections. No political party has submitted the name of its candidate, as at time of writing this piece. According to NEC, the nomination fees for candidates contesting parliamentary elections remain ten million leones (Le10,000,000.00), while the council election nomination fees stand at one million leones (Le1,000,000.00). In the midst of this, it remains unclear if the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) will nominate candidates for these bye-elections; taking into consideration the current position of the SLPP with regards nomination fees. The SLPP had earlier announced that the party was not going to contest any national election if NEC does not review the nomination fees for the candidates, as according to the SLPP, the fees were whopping and illegal. The SLPP based their argument on the fact they did not pay the ten million leones fee for parliamentary candidates and one million leones fee for council candidates during the 2012 national elections, irrespective of the fact that the said fees were the prescribed legal fees. Parliament had approved the said fees for the 2012 elections, but President Koroma was literally forced to meet with the various political parties on the issue following wide spread disagreement over the fees. At the end of the meeting, a temporal arrangement was reached, but the laws remained intact. However, the SLPP was now claiming that the said agreement that saw the candidates not paying the prescribed fee in the 2012 general elections should reflect all bye-elections emanating from the 2012 elections. And to make true their boycott threat, the SLPP recently stayed away completely from bye-elections that were held in Yams Farm, Mile 91 and other parts of the country. The party made no representation in the said elections. With the forthcoming elections, especially the one to be held in Kailahun, the SLPP will definitely be in a very big dilemma right now. It is an open secret that the SLPP cannot afford to boycott a parliamentary election in Kailahun. This is because Kailahun is considered to be the major stronghold of the opposition SLPP. If the SLPP decide to maintain its current position on the nomination fees, then the ruling party, All People’s Congress (APC) will jubilate. The APC will have a second parliamentarian in the Kailahun District; which will be a very big slap on the face of the opposition. It is however believed that the SLPP will definitely have no choice but to revisit and reverse its decision. The party will swallow its pride in this one rather than allowing the APC to be elected unopposed in Kailahun, it is being mooted. The SLPP however has an escape route in this. The party will claim that the decision to boycott the elections because of nomination fees was the thinking of the outgoing executive and does not reflect the beliefs of the new executive. Whatever excuse the party will put forward for reversing its decision, it will just be to save face and maintain supremacy and Kailahun. But if the SLPP will remain true to the boycott decision, then the APC will celebrate victory over them. However, this does not imply that there is no likelihood for the APC to win an election in Kailahun even in a contest with the SLPP. In the 2012 election, the current SLPP Publicity Secretary, Tamba Sam, was stripped off his parliamentary seat by an APC candidate. The situation unfolding is being closely monitored.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 22:01:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015