By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
One of the leading television stations in Sierra Leone, Africa Young Voices (AYV), has announced plans to organize a debate for aspiring candidates in the upcoming byelection for the parliamentary seat in constituency 110 in Freetown.
According to officials at AYV, the move is part of their broader program that seeks to widen the civic space and encourage more engagement with the electorate.
The planned debate comes just over a year after the 2018 Presidential Debate, which AYV helped organized in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists and other civil society groups.
“We want to create a platform where there will be proper interface between the people and those who want to represent them in Constituency 110,” Samuel Wise Bangura, Head of News and Current Affairs Department of AYV, told journalists in a press conference on Thursday.
Dr Ezekiel Duramani Lakkoh, Managing Director of the broadcaster, added that the debate is part of their commitment to the democracy of the country.
“We want to give our strongest commitment to the political stratosphere. We want to give a chance to people to listen to their candidates,” he said at the press conference.
Constituency 110 is located at the Western Rural District, covering communities like Goderich and Hamilton. The seat under contest was rendered vacant by a May 31 court ruling that annulled nine other parliamentary elections across the country, all of which had been won by the main opposition All Peoples Congress.
Kadija Davies, the politician who lost her seat as a result of court ruling, is being challenged in the by-election by three other candidates: Josephine Jackson of the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party, Ibrahim Kabba of the National Grand Coalition and Femi Claudius Cole of Unity Party.
The debate will be held on the 18th August, 2019 at AYV studios in Freetown. The broadcaster said all four candidates have consented to take part. All the parties were represented during the press briefing.
One of the candidates, Femi Claudius Cole, who was personally present, said she was looking forward to send more of her message across during the debate.
“I am looking forward to the debate. It’s one thing to campaign, its another thing to debate. I have been telling people to vote on issues rather than familiarity and along party lines,” she said.
Publicity Secretary of National Grand Coalition, Desmond Coker, represented his party’s candidate.
“As a party we ware fully committed to participate in this debate,” Coker said.
Constituency 110 is predominantly known for fishing and sand mining. These economic activities have also posed a major environmental issue for the residents. The debate’s organizers say issues like sand mining, fishing, education, youth empowerment will form part of the subjects for the debate.
This will be the first time AYV will be organizing a debate for candidates contesting a parliamentary election. Officials said they will try to do more of this in the coming years to open leaders to scrutiny.
“It is going to be difficult, but we want to build the culture of debate. This is good for the candidates before they go into parliament,” said Bangura.
© 2019 Politico Online
