Sierra Leone's High Commissioner to Britain says a minister who holds an executive position in his ruling All People’s Congress (APC) party must choose between the two.
In a statement released over the weekend, Edward Turay [Pictured] said holding both positions concurrently amounted to a conflict of interest.
At present the Minister of Mineral Resources is Deputy Chairman of the APC and Deputy Information Minister is Deputy Publicity Secretary of the party.
"I hereby want to call on the President and the general membership of the …APC to urge all ministers holding political party executive positions to choose between their ministerial jobs and that of the party executive positions” he said in a press release issued from the embassy in London.
"If you want to serve as a minister you must give up your position as an executive member of the APC. Period," the release quotes him as saying.
He commended the party’s Secretary General, Osman Yansaneh for resigning his position as ambassador to Ghana to take up his current position in the party.
"Let Cabinet Ministers remain Ministers and NOT … occupy executive positions in the party, except the leader of the Party – who, incidentally becomes the President," Turay said.
He said there must be separation of powers between the party and the Government which, he said was best practise in advance democracies.
Turay, who was presidential candidate for the APC in 1996, recently called on President Ernest Bai Koroma to sack all ministers who had declared their intention to run for present in elections that must be held not later than February 2018.
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