By Mohamed Vandi
The squabbling in the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party seems to be deepening especially in the Eastern Region where there is at present a controversy over the elections of constituency executives The party chairman for Constituency 10 yesterday told Politico that there would be no rerun of constituency or district elections in Kenema after those conducted in May, 2013. Mohamed Rogers said the executive elections in the eleven constituencies had been completed and names of successful candidates submitted to the National Secretary General for the attention of the national delegates’ council. He said plans by the National Chairman of the party, John Benjamin “to impose illegal constitutional procedures by cancelling the constituency elections” would not be accepted, accusing him of planning “to destroy the party” since he was leaving the leadership position. Rogers said that on Tuesday 30 July Benjamin called on the police to provide security for the conduct fresh elections in all eleven constituencies which he said was done “secretly”. He said the outgoing national party chairman had no mandate to overturn the outcome of the May elections “John Benjamin’s intention is to destroy the party in favour of the All People’s Congress Party,” he said, alleging that on several occasions he had boasted of his close connections with President Ernest Koroma. John Benjamin says elections have been rerun in five constituencies (10, 12, 14, 17 and 19) where there were petitions and that there will be fresh election for the Kenema district executive. Speaking to Politico, Benjamin said that following the death of the SLPP parliament, Alice Foryah whose husband is the Eastern region Chairman, they asked that all elections be put off as a mark of respect. He said the executive in Kenema went ahead and held theirs regardless, accusing them of also disregarding petitions in five constituencies. He said that the national executive sent a fact-finding team to look into the petitions and whether there were grounds to hold fresh elections. Their report, he said, was what they went by. Alusine Bah, who claims to be the new constituency chairman, told Politico that he was elected on Tuesday in one of five constituencies (10, 12, 14, 17 and 19) where he said the elections had been petitioned. He said the elections were conducted by party members in the constituency and not by Benjamin as alleged. (C) Politico 01/08/13
