By Politico Staff Writer
The Political Parties Regulatory Commission (PPRC) has led an intra-party validation exercise to help parties resolve their internal challenges.
The two-day event from 14th to 15th November was held at the Brookfields Hotel in Freetown where PPRC Chairman, Abdulai Masiambay Bangura expressed satisfaction at the turnout.
“We want Political Parties to be using the guide to help them resolve their internal problems as they come,” he said.
He noted that the commission was faced with mediation problems but assured that the New Political Parties Act has given them a lot of mediating powers.
“With this mandate, we will not have many court cases again. Before now we did not have the powers to go in and resolve their differences,” Bangura admitted.
He assured there will not be any conflict between the validation guide for political parties and the constitution of parties as they will use their individual structures to resolve issues within. He added that there will be a committee set to look into their problems with clear guidelines that will be used across the country.
He said with the structures they are now setting, if political parties fail to meditate well within themselves or an ordinary member is aggrieved, they will have the right to come up with a complaint to PPRC for redress.
The Consultant, Busi Ncube informed Politico that the workshop was specifically meant to guide political parties and to empower them to be able to constructively deal with issues within their parties.
"This is to help them strengthen their capacity and be more systematic in the way that they deal with each other,” she said.
She noted that some parties only have a disciplinary committee, adding that what they have discussed in the validation workshop is to have more preventive approaches through dialogue and not to wait for a conflict to happen before they intervene.
"Conflicts cannot be completely eliminated. Sometimes conflicts are necessary and useful. What we are trying to do is sometimes to minimize party members taking each other to court. Because the outcome of that is not always positive,” Busi stated.
She said when the validation guide is finally out by next year, it will be given to political parties.
The Publicity Secretary of the main opposition All People's Congress (APC), Sidi Yaya Tunis said as a party they are impressed with the validation guide, saying there is a provision in their party to settle internal disputes. He said they have become victims of the absence of such structures to bring the party together to settle disputes where they spent years in court with members. He assured that they as a party will fully comply with the validation guide.
National Auditor of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), Augustine J. J Tommy said that they were pleased with the validation workshop and
notably the validation guide on settling their differences as a party.
“The Validation guide will address issues that have undermined peace within the party,” he said. He promised his party’s adherence to the validation guide.
The event was funded by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA).
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