PDP calls on NEC to extend nomination days

Politics

National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Dr. Prince Coker, has called on the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to extend the nomination period, to allow them get more candidates to participate in the election. During the party’s nomination at the National Stadium Presidential Lounge yesterday, Coker commended NEC for the nomination and the whole electoral process but that because of the high fees which was first announced by the Commission, caused a lot of candidates to shy away from the process. He said the party only had about “25 to 30 candidates for the whole country and seven of them are from the Western Area. We do not have any candidates for mayors for Freetown, Bo, Kenema but we have one for Makeni.” The Chairman said “the NEC fees caused some of our candidates to withdraw. If you are asking councilors to pay Le1, 000,000 and Members of Parliament to pay le10, 000,000,this caused some of them to drop on the way, but now that the fees have been reduced, we as a party have appealed to NEC for an extension of the nomination date, in order for other people to come on board.” He added that if NEC extends the date for us, they will have many people for different offices as “people want to fill them. But as you can see, there is not much time left, as today(yesterday) is our own nomination day but we trust God that NEC will see reason with us.” Questioned about the nomination process, he said the “process is okay and there is no problem, and as a party we are satisfied, although there are also some lapses, which NEC as an institution, needs to rectify.” The PDP National Chairman said that the party held their convention from the 1st to 2nd September in Kambia, where he was elected as Chairman of the party and Gibrilla Kamara emerged as the leader of the party. However he said they were not able to nominate a Presidential candidate but that if they could not get “a presidential candidate eventuall, he will have to stand as the presidential candidate.” In the Western Area, the PDP has seven candidates bulk of them is from the Eastern of Freetown. They also have some candidate from the rural area He said that it is not easy but they are moving on as a party, whether big or small party they are all encountering financial difficulties. By Nancy Koroma

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