By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
The main opposition All People’s Congress Party has overwhelmingly elected Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara as the Party's Presidential Candidate ahead of the June 2023 elections.
Dr. Samura will be contesting again against incumbent President Julius Maada Bio.
He is yet to announce his running mate after he was elected during the party’s delegates' conference in Makeni yesterday.
He scored 1,382 (one thousand, three hundred and eighty-two) votes -84.94%, out of 1,627 (one thousand, six hundred and twenty-seven) votes cast.
He defeated seventeen other candidates, with his closest challenger Dr. Richard Conteh getting only 88 (eighty-eight) or 5.41%.
In the other positions contested, Alhajie Minkailu Mansaray was elected party Chairman whilst Alhaji Osman Foday Yansaneh became the deputy. Lawyer Lansana Dumuya won the party’s Secretary Generalship, defeating Lawyer Ady Macauley, whilst Osman Timbo claimed the deputy Secretary Generalship.
The delegates’ conference was held in the wake of a High Court injunction that had first restrained the party from convening the event on the eve of its initial scheduled date of Friday 17th February 2023.
It could be recalled that an injunction was filed by APC member Francis Kai- Gbondo on the 14th of February 2023 citing some illegalities related to the party’s lower-level elections. Other members also filed petitions to the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) on similar issues.
However, upon hearing the applicant’s position and the exhibits he tendered in court asking for an injunction, the court ordered the party to hold its conference from 18th -20th February 2023 on the grounds that the injunction granted by the court should not affect the conference.
The court also gave an order to the Transition Interim Independent Elections Management Committee (TIIEMC) of the party to conduct the conference instead of the Interim Transition Governance Committee (ITGC).
On the petition filed to the PPRC over the conduct and outcome of some of the APC district and regional executive elections, two of the petitioners namely Sheku Samuel Kamara and Gunther A.B. Daramy were both absent during the hearing. However, the four petitioners that were present, Dr. Komba Sonsiama, Leonard Amid Bangura, Abu Bakarr, and another person went ahead with their petition.
They claimed that the venues were not announced on time, that the delegates lists were not published, that the elections were marred by violence that was allegedly perpetrated by Ibrahim Prince Tholley’s camp, and that two of the Candidates Ibrahim Prince Tholley and Bai Tarawallie contesting for positions in the youth wing of the party were outside the age bracket for the membership.
The petitioners from Koinadugu District, Ballah Sesay, and Karefa M. Kargbo, were aggrieved that, the closing date for the submission of the application was extended by the ITGC, to accommodate their preferred candidates and that, the total number of votes cast were one in excess of the number of delegates present, 79/80.
The commission however noted that ordinarily there is nothing in the party’s extant instruments that forbids extension of time, for the submission of applications. The petitioners did not proffer any evidence to show that the extension was intended to confer an advantage on certain people.
On the one excess vote, the TIIEMC focal person Jeneba Kamara that superintended over those elections, tendered to the commission during the hearing, both the ballot papers cast and the result sheet. Both documents were said to negate the petitioner’s claim of one excess vote.
The commission, therefore, dismissed the petition.
It referred to the petition filed in the Southern Region as a typical example of vexatious, frivolous, and time-wasting actions. It, therefore, dismissed it also.
Consequently, the commission annulled and canceled the petition filed against the District Chairman of Kono District, the reason being he contested the election as a proxy.
It urged the incoming appropriate organ of the party after its upcoming delegates conference, to conduct an election for the District Chairman of the party in Kono District, as the mandate of both the ITGC and the TIIEMC would have expired.
It could be recalled that this is the first democratic election conducted by the APC after reviewing their former selection clause.
Earlier, the Chairman of APC’s Interim Transition Governance Committee (IGTC) Alfred Peter Conteh in a letter dated 17th February directly addressed to the Chairman of the Political Parties Registration Commission complained about the decision of the High Court to grant the party’s Transition Interim Independent Elections Management Committee (TIIEMC) of the party to conduct the conference.
‘’That your commission enquire the source of the mandate(d) of the said lawyers who made these requests on behalf of the APC party without the ITGC’’, Conteh wrote.
Dr. Kamara apart from being the APC Presidential candidate in the 2018 polls had also served in the public sector before as Financial Secretary, Minister of Finance, Foreign Minister, and Bank Governor.
Copyright © 2023 Politico Online (21/02/23)
