National Publicity Secretary of People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), Muniru Koroma has blamed the earlier announcement by Sierra Leone's National Electoral Commission of nomination fees as the primary reason they had failed to field in candidates throughout the country.
He that: “The exorbitant nomination fees are one of the reasons our party did not give the required candidates to contest for the positions of councillors, chairmen and mayors on 17 November 2012 elections”.
Koroma explained that his party “refused to nominate on the second day of nomination which was our slated date for nomination on the basis that the fees were too high for us”.
He said they were only able get candidates to come forward after the national returning officer, Christiana Thorpe, reversed the nomination fees to their 2007 levels.
He added that transportation problems also contributed to the inability, claiming that most of their nominees were involved in road accidents in Kenema and Kono districts. He, however, promised that his party would supply names of parliamentary candidates for all the constituencies in the country.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by NEC says out of the ten registered political parties only the ruling All People's Congress and the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party have been able to submit candidates for all positions – parliament, mayors, council chairmen and councillors.
The release further states that “a total of 1,626 candidates were nominated across the ten registered political parties,” adding that of that number only 21% were female.
Nominations started on 4 October and are expected to end 14 October. While nomination for presidential and vice presidential candidates is holding at the commission’s headquarters in Freetown, nomination of parliamentary candidates is being done in all NEC district offices throughout the country.
