The National Electoral Commission (NEC) will today commence the nomination process for 121 Village Heads in Western Area Rural District Council for the elections to be conducted on the 29 December. The Nomination Fee is Le500,000.
Recently, NEC tabled a Bill in Parliament on a proposed fee for conduct of elections. If the Bill had been passed, then fees for the Village Head would have been Le250,000. However, because the Bill has not been passed, the Nomination Fees remain at the 2017 amounts.
According the Director of External Outreach for NEC, Albert Massaquoi, this election is done in only the Western Rural District and the chiefdoms. NEC also conducts Paramount Chieftaincy elections and for the urban areas, no elections are conducted.
Massaquoi said, the nomination process will commence today and will end on the 27 November in the different zones including Waterloo, Mountain Ward, Koya Ward1, 2 and York Ward.
Qualifications for Village Head include: a candidate has to reside in the village for five years or more, should have been contributing to local development through the payment of local taxes and house tax, should be a registered voter and should have attained the age of 30. He said the candidate should be independent as this is a community run and about the individual in their respective villages.
“These elections are non-political so after the whole registration we will display a collection of symbols from which they will choose. These symbols are not political but represent Sierra Leone culture”. BM/21/11/17
By Betty Milton
Wednesday November 22, 2017.