By Mabinty M. Kamara
With barely five weeks to the Sierra Leone Multi-tier elections slated for 24th June this year, the Country’s main opposition party the All Peoples Congress (APC) has been taken to court again by two of its senior member members who filed a petition to the Supreme Court against the Party’s presidential candidate Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara Ph.D.
In a Supreme Court document dated 17th May 2023 widely circulated on social media, Paul Alimamy Kamara and Reverend Alimamy Cleson Turay filed an application to the supreme court seeking determination and an interpretation of sections 35 (4) and 76 (1) Act No. 6 of the 1991 constitution of Sierra Leone in relation to the nomination of the candidacy of Dr. Kamara the 3rd respondent in the matter by the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) the first respondent.
The two according to the document seek clarification on whether or not the Transitional Interim Management Committee (ITIIEMC) of the APC set up has the legal mandate to conduct the National Delegate Convention held by the party, the fourth respondent in Makene, northern Sierra Leone on the 17, 18 and 19 of February this year despite an injunction restraining the old executive of the party from carrying out any party related functions “same being members of the said ATMC electing the 3rd respondent as a presidential candidate for the fourth coming June 24th elections as opposed to the interim Transitional Governance Committee a body constituted by virtue of the said judgment with powers inter alia to conduct the said national delegate conference of the forth respondents,” it reads.
It also questioned if the findings of the Commissions of Inquiry on the account of dishonesty against the presidential candidate ought to have been taken into consideration by the ECSL on the nomination of Dr. Kamara for the June 2024 elections “upon said the findings upheld or by the court of appeal of Sierra Leone with the 3rd said respondent currently standing criminal trial involving fraud at the high court of Sierra Leone,” the document stated.
The Judiciary Communication Lead Elkass Sannoh could not confirm the application to Politico up to the time of going to the press. However, one of the applicants Paul Kamara confirmed his application to the Supreme Court for an interpretation.
The National Publicity Secretary of the APC Sidi Yayah Tunis said that the party’s lawyers are in charge of the issue and so he wouldn’t say much.
However, said the application is more of a question than a petition.
“Whatever it is, our lawyers will handle it. We know that we have a presidential candidate that is going to contest. That is our position. In the meantime we are focusing on the election and our presidential candidate is going to win the elections,” he said.
The application came days after the Judiciary announced its preparedness to administer justice at the newly established Electoral Offences and Petitions Courts across the country with assigned judges across the regions.
Justice Adrian Fisher, presiding over the ongoing Anti-Corruption Commission’s case for the renovation of the Sierra Leone UN Mission building in New York also known as the Chancery Building, for which Dr. Kamara is implicated among four others had in late April this year adjourned the matter to 14th July 2023, after the national elections.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (19/05/23)
