By Bampia James Bundu
The chairman of Sierra Leone’s Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC), Justice Tolla Thompson, has urged political parties to maintain the peace and unity that they have displayed during the Ebola crisis after the country would have returned to normalcy.
Justice Thompson was addressing political parties at the presentation of an Ebola intervention report on seven districts across the country in Freetown last week. He told the political parties that they were merely performing their political mandate as required by Sierra Leone’s constitution.
Before now, Justice Thompson noted, political parties were only seen in active service during election periods, which according to him was just one aspect of their political mandate to the country.
He described them as key players in the Ebola fight and added that the disease was killing people in constituencies where most of their members, supporters and sympathizers lived.
Presenting the report to the commission, acting chairman of APPA, Mohamed Bangura, explained that the overall objective of the Ebola intervention project was to complement the effort of the government and its development partners in the fight against Ebola in the country.
Out of the Le211 million disbursed to APPA by the PPRC for the first phase of the project, Bangura stated that they utilized Le207 million and had already deposited the balance of Le 3m into the PPRC account.
He said that they were able to monitor the activities of the rapid response and burial teams, sensitization and quarantined homes and communities in the Western Area, Moyamba, Bo, Kenema, Kailahun, Kono, Bombali, and Port Loko Districts.
The APPA chairman, who is also leader of the UDM party, stated that his association deployed about 360 of its members in various regions across the country in order to ensure the successful completion of the process. He noted that they as political parties could not do anything short of supporting the government in the fight against Ebola.
He assured that they would concentrate more on hotspot areas as they work towards the second phase of the project and commended the PPRC for its continued support towards their campaign.
© Politico 04/02/15
