By Crispina Taylor
Sierra Leone`s lawmakers have kicked against the idea of conducting four elections at one go as was the case in the last general elections in 2012.
MPs on Wednesday opposed the proposal put forward to parliament by the National Electoral Commission as part of a presentation of its 2015-2019 electoral cycle.
The next elections in Sierra Leone are slated for 2018. And because elections for the local councils which were slated for 2016 have been postponed to 2018, it means elections, including those for the presidency and parliament, will be held that same year.
MPs say this presents a lot of pressure on them in terms of campaigning and resource mobilization. They say they have to mobilize resources for themselves and candidates vying for local council positions in their respective political parties.
Minority Leader of parliament, Bernadette Lahai, said this will be unfair to MPs.
She said: “In 2012 the multi-tire elections were difficult for MPs who carried councilors on their shoulders,” she said, adding: “councilors should not go to councils on MPs ticket, let them fight for their wards for themselves and MPs their constituencies in separate elections.”
MPs from both sides of the isle in parliament in chorus approved the position of the minority leader.
MPs believe that councilors do not work hard in terms of gaining support and votes, instead they rely on the parliamentary candidates for these.
But later the same councilors seek to replace the MPs of their constituency whom they often accuse of not doing enough in terms of development.
Mrs Lahai said conducting separate elections would help political parties to correct their deficiencies by determining which candidate is doing well and which is not when in office.
Mohamed N’fa Alie Conteh, Chief Electoral Commissioner, defended the proposal for a multi-tier election by citing the postponement of the 2016 Local Council elections.
The elections were postponed because of the delay in conducting the census, which is now slated for this December. The NEC says the outcome of the census is needed for the boundary delimitation.
According to law, boundary delimitations of Wards and Constituencies should be carried out between five and seven years. And the last time delimitation exercise on constituencies and wards were carried out was in 2006 and 2008, respectively.
This way it is well over the stipulated time for constituency delimitation, and by December 16, it will have been over seven for ward delimitation.
This, Conteh said, will be in contravention of section 38 of the 1991 constitution.
(C) Politico Online 21/10/15
