The spokesman of the National Electoral Commission, Albert Massaquoi says the parliamentary bye-election in the APC stronghold of Constituency 62 in Mile 91 will no longer hold. It was scheduled for Saturday 29 June following the appointment of the incumbent, Mathew Teambo, as Minister of Labour and Industrial Relations.
Massaquoi told Politico that NEC had received a withdrawal letter from independent candidate John Gbla who was the only challenger to the APC candidate, Aaron Koroma.
Gbla's withdrawal followed a visit to the town on 19 June by a high-powered delegation led by President Ernest Bai Koroma to, apparently, force Gbla to withdraw from the contest as he had seriously threatened to unseat the party in the constituency. He had broken ranks with the APC and gone independent after he was denied the party's symbol to run. It led to a groundswell of protests by especially youth in the town and its environs who vowed to vote against the party.
According to the police local unit commander, Max Kanu, the angry youth even set on fire the giant portrait of President Koroma in the town.
The NEC spokesman said that they received the withdrawal letter on 19 June which was dated on 17 June, saying it fell within the deadline as contained in the Public Elections Act which stipulates that a candidate can withdraw at least ten days before an election.
However, it is unclear how a withdrawal letter could have pre-dated the actual pull-out by the candidate.
Massaquoi said that barring any petition against him, Aaron Koroma would be declared duly elected “unopposed” when bye-election results from contested areas were being announced.
He confirmed that the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party had not fielded in any candidates for the bye-election.
The Chairman of the SLPP, John Benjamin told Politico that they refused to field in candidates in the string of bye-elections happening this week because of the “prohibitive candidate fees imposed by the electoral commission”. He said that democracy was being “destroyed” in the country in part because of the “hike” in nomination fee for parliamentary candidates which stands at Le 10 million.
He said the new fee had been implemented “through the back door” as they had resisted it when it was first introduced in the run-up to last year's election.
Asked whether his party chose not to field in candidates because they had no hope of winning in those areas, Benjamin quipped that if that were the case they would not have presented candidates in all constituencies and wards in the November election.
When Politico asked him if his party would also boycott the bye-election in their stronghold of Constituency 001, whose MP died recently, the SLPP leader replied: “that time has not come yet”.
