At the Supreme Court yesterday in Freetown, the leader of the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), Charles F. Margai, argued that “vice president Solomon Berewa is not eligible to contest the 2007 presidential election because of his current position.”
The PMDC leader said the purported response by Mr Berewa was not in the same terms with them as he was responding to a petition dated 14 June and that the PMDC petition was dated 16th June 2006.
The onus of replay, he went on, was the SLPP and not on Berewa as he was just a subject matter of the petition.
On the decision of the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) on the illegality of the vice president’s candidature, Mr Margai told the judges that if the chairman who is supposed to be a retired judge was present when the decision was made, it would have been a different one as in the ruling of the PPRC “it states that Berewa as an ordinary man has the right to contest for the position but they failed to answer the question about him holding a particular office and contesting for the presidency”.
In his argument the principal legal adviser of the party, Mohamed Pa Momoh Fofanah, informed the judges that the PPRC failed to address the crucial question poised to them about the eligibility of the vice president and that the appellant wanted to mislead the court as they had used the literal rule.
Explaining further, Pa Momoh mentioned that as “the SLPP operates in virtue of the constitution of the land and the party’s laws as well as the PPRC Act …these laws give the definition of national officials”.
In response Eke Holloway said, “Solomon Berewa is eligible to contest as he fulfils the condition of becoming a member of parliament and that qualifies him to contest”.
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