By Mathew Kanu In Makeni
The Bombali District Electoral Officer of the National Electoral Commission says voter turnout in Saturday’s parliamentary bye-election in constitutncy 29 in Makeni, was 22.9%. Abubakar Javombo said that in absolute figures 6,727 people voted, out of a total of 29,323 registered voters.
Of those there were 368 void votes making up 5.8%.
The APC candidate Sallieu O Sesay defeated his challenger from the UDM party, Ibrahim Nelson Kamara.
Javombo said the election was free and fair, except that “in some isolated cases” at the Baptist primary school center some people attempted to vote after polls had closed at 5:00 PM.
The bye-election came about as a result of the appointment of Alimamy Kamara as Minister of Youth.
The Political Parties Registration Commission monitored the conduct of the election. PPRC Regional Mediation and Programmes Officer, Sallieu Kamara said the election was “very credible, peaceful and free and fair” adding that there was “no serious incident throughout the electoral process”.
He said elections “always have minor or major problems and so there was some misunderstanding on the campaign time table”.
However, the UDM Candidate, Ibrahim Nelson Kamara said that he faced some political harassment and intimidation from the APC party prior to voting day and blamed the police, NEC, PPRC and UN for “doing nothing to stop the harassment”.
He however said that on polling day NEC conducted the election genuinely and that the process was free and fair.
“I will accept the result in the interest of peace and democracy” he said
Following his pronouncement of the result, the newly elected MP, Sallieu O. Sesay said that he was delighted to have been elected saying it was a historic moment in his life.
He said improving the lives of the youth of the constituency would be a major priority for him. He encouraged his defeated opponent to work together for the development of the constituency.
Sesay expressed concern however at the low turnout which he said was a major challenge.
One voter, Rosetta Kanu praised the conduct of the election describing it as “very peaceful and credible”.
She said even though there was poor voter turnout the people of the constituency displayed political maturity.
Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of the northeast of the country, Soluku Conteh said that there was no security threat throughout the process and that nothing had gone wrong during the process. He said that his officers were proactive in the maintenance of peace and quiet before, during and after the election.
(C) Politico 05/07/13
