The Bombali district office of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has set Saturday 29th April 2017 as date for the conduct of a multi-member Ward bye-election at Ward 89 in Constituency 29, within the Makeni municipality.
The Public Elections Act of 2012 stated that after ninety days of a vacant seat, NEC shall conduct a bye-election to fill the vacant position. Many locals believe the bye-election should be part of the national elections slated for less than a year from now. They said the bye-election will be of no significance and a waste of revenue.
The Voter Education and Training Officer (VETO) for NEC Bombali, Manty Dabo, said everything pertaining to elections are documented and put into law, which is the guiding instrument for the Commission. It is the law that whenever there is a death of an elected member of Ward or Constituency, it was their duty to conduct a bye-election after 90 days.
The VETO Officer, said, “Four registered political parties were able to complete the process that qualifies them to participate in the forthcoming bye-election at ward 89. These parties are, the All Peoples Congress (APC), the Sierra Leone People Party (SLPP), the United Democratic Movement (UDM) and the Alliance Democratic Party (ADP). The ruling APC awarded their symbol to Abubakarr Dolphin Kamara, while the SLPP gave their symbol to Abu Bakarr Kanu. The two other parties, UDM and ADP respectively awarded Elizabeth J. Sesay and Fatima Yassin.
Dabo described the area as the largest Ward in Constituency 28, with 20 polling centres, which she said will be manned by over 60 polling staff.
Manty Dabo said since the date for bye-election was announced they have been engaged on ‘Know your candidate’ campaigns. She said they will start training of potential polling staff on 26th and 27th April which will be followed by deployment on 28th April.
By Mohamed Kabba
Tuesday April 25, 2017.
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