The eligibility of Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr to vie to be the next Mayor for the Freetown City Council (FCC) municipality under the ticket of the All Peoples Congress (APC) is being questioned by some people using sections of the Local Government Act.
The contention is that Aki-Sawyerr registered to vote in Regent village which is Western Area Rural, whilst wanting to contest for a Mayoral seat in Western Area Urban (Freetown Municipality).
Manager Partner Turay and Co. Solicitor, Abubakarr Turay, said, “…there seems to be a misunderstanding, which is unfortunate. But the good news is, the law is absolutely clear. I will make reference to two pieces of legislations,” he added.
“The first is the Local Government Act which defines a councilor, but also separately defines a Mayor, or Chairperson of the council… within the Local Government Act section 6(1) there is reference to requirements to qualify ‘as a councilor’… ” which are (a) a citizen of not less than 21 years of age; (b) is on the Register of Electors (now Register of Voters) and is ordinarily resident in the ‘ward’ in which he seeks election; and (c ) has paid all taxes and rates in that locality as required by law. Lawyer Turay explained that section 6(1b) of the Local Government Act, which speaks about ordinarily resident in the ‘ward’ is clearly making references to councilors. “…that in itself already explains or confirms to you that it is not talking about the Mayor or the Chairperson because clearly they are not going to be restricted to a ward. Our second relevant piece of legislation which is the Public Elections Act of 2012,” ‘ordinary resident’ is clearly defined,” he said.
The Public Elections Act of 2012 states “’ordinary residence’ in relation to a person means the home or place where the person normally resides and to which the person returns regularly after any period of temporary absence…”. Turay explained “ … the concept that is being twisted, and that in fact only applies to Councilors, is that you should be ordinarily resident in the locality at the time at which you register to vote but the law doesn’t say that…”he explained. Turay stated that those who are suggesting that the Mayor must register to vote in the locality in which they are seeking office should point to the specific legislation which states this.
According to Turay, the Public Elections Act 2012 clarifies that the purpose of being on the Voters Register is to allow a person to vote and be voted for, not to restrict you to being voted for only in that locality. Lawyer Turay went on to give the following example: “If a person goes to Kono to work and because of work couldn’t get back to Freetown to register, and so registers in Kono, does that mean that person who has lived living in Freetown all his life would now not be able to seek office in Freetown?”.
Turay concluded by reiterating that the role and functions of the councilor and the mayor/chairperson are very clearly and separately defined in the Local Government Act and provisions relating to the councilor do not apply to the mayor/chairperson. He cited the fact that in the recent past Mayor Hebert George-Williams registered to vote in and lived in Goderich (which is in the Western Rural Area) throughout his tenure as Mayor of Freetown.
Conversely, Lawyer Floyd Davies explained that though the Act did not mentioned anything about Mayor or Chairman the qualification for Councilor is applied to Mayor or Chairman. He explained that the first local council elections in 2004 was for councilors and a Mayor was elected amongst the councilors.
OG/8/11/17
By Ophaniel Gooding
Thursday November 09, 2017.