By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
The opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party now leads the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) by one seat in Parliament, following its winning of the parliamentary bye-elections in Tonkolili district after the seat became vacant when the then SLPP parliamentary representative went on to become paramount chief.
Before this, both APC and SLPP had fifty-eight MPs each. After the 2018 general elections, the APC had sixty-eight seats in parliament while the ruling SLPP had 58 seats. However, some of the APC MPs were petitioned which saw them lose 10 seats in 2019 after the High Court ruling.
Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed K Konneh, in announcing yesterday the results of the parliamentary election and those of five wards, first highlighted the reasons behind some of the vacant seats. He explained to have received letters from the Chief Administrators of Kabala, Karene, and PortLoko district councils on the vacancies that occurred, some as a result of the deaths of Councilors in the aforementioned districts councils. Councilor Ismael Koroma became Chiefdom Speaker in Small Bo chiefdom, Kenema district, whilst for Ward 216 in Karene district, the vacancy occurred as a result of the leave of absence of Councilor Benjamin Roy Kargbo.
He noted that for Constituency 056, Tonkolili district, Seventy (70) polling station results were entered into the result database representing 100 % of all polling stations in the constituency, with a voter turnout of 10,417 out of a voter register of 20,581 which gives a percentage turnout of 50.6%. He said the total number of valid votes cast was 9,675 and 742 votes cast were invalids which represent 7.1% of the total votes cast.
Konneh pointed out that for Ward 031 in Kenema , thirty-eight (38) polling station results were entered into the result database that represents 100% of all polling stations in the constituency, with a voter turnout of 4,238 out of a voter register of 10,960, giving a percentage turnout of 38.7%. He spoke of 4,000 valid votes and 238 invalids representing 5.6% of the total votes cast.
He said for Ward 138 results in Falaba, five (5) polling station results were entered into the database with a 694 voter turnout out of a voter register of 1,634, thereby giving a percentage turnout of 42.5%. He said the total number of valid votes was 645 and 49 invalid votes, representing 7.06% of the total votes cast.
Konneh stated that for Ward 212 results in Karene, Sixteen (16) polling station results were entered into the database with a voter turnout of 1,283 out of a voter register of 4,211, giving a percentage turnout of 30.5%. He said the total number of valid votes was 1,155 and that there were 128 invalid votes or 10% of the total votes.
He announced that for Ward 216 results in Karene, fifteen (15) polling station results were entered into the database, which saw a voter turnout of 2,029 out of a voter register of 3,984, with a percentage turnout of 50.9%. The total number of valid votes cast was 1,880, 149 of them invalid votes, representing 7.3% of total votes.
Konneh noted that for results in Ward 252 in the Port Loko district, twenty-seven (27) polling station results were entered into the database. Voter turnout was 2,454 out of a voter register of 7,306; giving a percentage turnout of 33.6%. He said the total number of valid votes was 2,263 and 191 invalid votes, representing 7.78% of the total votes cast.
The Chief Electoral Commissioner declared APC’s Jawah Sesay of constituency 056 in Tonkolili, having polled 5,487 and being the highest number of valid votes cast, the duly elected Member of Parliament.
He declared Mohamed Kamara of APC as duly elected Councilor for Ward 138 in Falaba after he polled 525 votes. Idrissa Bangura of the same APC party from Ward 216 in Karene was also confirmed elected Councilor after he secured 1,227 votes.
He also announced Gassimu James Kamara also of APC as elected Councilor for Ward 252 in PortLoko after he polled 1,661 votes.
Sheriff Jeneba of the SLPP is the elected Councilor for Ward 031 in Kenema after polling 2,993 votes. Amara Mohamed Turay also of the SLPP becomes the new elected Councilor for Ward 212 in Karene, having polled 747 votes.
Konneh noted that the complaints he received from the SLPP on alleged ballot stuffing were not enough to invalidate the outcome of the results. He also declared that they are the last bye-elections to be conducted before the 2023 General elections.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (29/06/22)
