By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
The Publicity Head of the Interim Governance Transition Committee (IGTC), All People’s Congress (APC) Sulaiman Bumneh Kamara has said that the judgment delivered by Justice Adrian Fisher in the matter on contempt against Committee Chairman Alfred peter Conteh was fair for both sides.
He made this disclosure in an interview with the State Broadcaster on the 24th November, 2022.
Kamara said considering the time -frame given to them by the judge, there are issues they needed to clarify such as the commencement date of December 5 for their lower level elections, how they should go about registering members and what party register they should use to conduct the elections. He pointed out that the judgment was geared towards unifying the APC party and the path to go by, to ensure the party gets its Presidential Candidate and national executive.
He noted that the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) gave them about 20 days to do re-registration of members at lower ward level; since the party register submitted by the former National Party Secretary General was not reliable. He said they have initiated a first of its kind biometric digital registration system for the process to be free and fair.
“We could have started registration on the 21st November, 2022, but due to the injunction from the court, we have to suspend it,” he said.
The IGTC spokesman reaffirmed that, there are objectors to some things that have been happening in the party; hence their main motive is to bring in democracy into the APC. He added that one thing that brought about the saga in the APC was that a lot of people have been disenfranchised.
He said they are happy with the judgment and that the lesson learnt from the ruling is that, they are running a political party and its interest must supersede personal.
“It is evident that everyone has a candidate in mind, but the common goal should be the party’s interest,” he said.
He further said that they have communicated to all those selected by Conteh that their positions have been quashed by the court ruling.
The court judgment also urged the IGTC Secretary, Abdul Kargbo to return the APC membership printing machine he took from the party head office in Freetown.
A court order saw the setting up of the IGTC which replaced the erstwhile Executive of the party. But divisions have also engulfed the committee lately, with its chairman charged with contempt, resulting in the latest court ruling.
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