By Septimus Senessie in Kono
The Kono District Chairlady of the governing All People's Congress party has expressed dissatisfaction over the method by which the party awarded symbols to people running for parliament in the district.
Speaking to Politico, Mariama Sorgbo blamed the party's hierarchy for “the lack of recognition and respect” for the rank and file of the party and threatened to vote against the party's candidates for the House even though she said she would vote for their presidential candidate, Ernest Bai Koroma. “I will rather prefer to vote for the candidate of the opposition SLPP as long as they present the right candidate who is au fait with our problem” she said, adding “this is not a party matter but development”.
Sorgbo said the party hierarchy should know “the party is not their personal property for them to sit all by themselves and decide how the party should run”. She chided thus: “as they imposed their Diaspora candidates on us who do not know the problems of the people due to their long absence from the country, so we too will dispose of them come 17 November”.
The APC District Chairlady is among several members and supporters of the party who spoke to Politico and expressed anger and indignation over the method used by the Electoral College in choosing who to be awarded a symbol and accused them of handpicking the candidates. They said the idea of establishing the Electoral College was a good initiative for the grassroots people to
directly elect representatives of their choice, which they said worked quite well during the local council primaries leaving everybody “well satisfied” with the conduct of the process.
They described the process used for the parliamentary process as “a total disregard and betrayal” of ordinary party members.
One of the failed aspirants for Constituency 27, Joseph Fallah Komba Godwin Gassymu said the award of symbol to his opponent without going through the electoral college was a recipe for “disunity, split and, by extension, division within the party in the district”. He said that with this initiative of the party, the people would never vote for a candidate who had no knowledge of the suffering in their constituency.
Gassymu maintained that, the previous division tendency was hinged on the re-appointment of Samuel Samsumama as the running mate and now that it has been laid to rest the party has created a “big vacuum that will make the opposition to clear the 8 parliamentary sits in Kono if the issue is not timely addressed”.
A representative of the OKADA riders on the Electoral College, Osman Sesay said the process was an imposition, adding that it would “totally undermine the democratic process within the party”. He accused them of mortgaging the party to those from the Diaspora whom he said had failed the APC administration and the people of this country. He called on the chairman of the party to reconsider their position before “wata go pass gari”.
Reacting to the allegations, Tamba Richard Fillie – who writes for the party in Kono – said that the candidates were not imposed on them insisting that they went by the party's constitution without quoting the relevant sections. He said the selection of candidates in the party was done either by election which was done in the local council primaries, or by “handpicking”, which he said the party had done in the case of parliamentary candidates.
