By: Ilyasa Baa
The nominations of candidates aspiring for seats in the Bombali District Council and the Makeni City Council ended peacefully but surprisingly only the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party submitted names targeting from the Mayoral seat, District Chairperson right down to Councilors for both Councils unlike other political parties which only went for Chairperson and Mayor not for Councilors.
The Voter Education, Training Officer of Bombali District, Atiyu Jalloh confirmed that seven political parties went through the nomination processes in the district noting that only the SLPP and APC sent candidates for all the quota of seats in both councils including the Mayor and Chairperson. He said the Municipality of Makeni has a quota of 30 seats whilst the District Council has 42 seats to be contested for apart from the Mayor and Chairperson’s seats.
He said the ADP sent contestants for the 42 seats in the District Council and the Mayoral seat but not for Councilors of the Makeni City Council.
According to him, CDP targeted the 30 seats in the councils, it did not target the Mayoral and Chairperson’s seats.
He went on that UDP sent candidates only for Mayor and Chairperson not for Councilors.
As for UNPP, it only sent names for Mayor of the Municipality leaving all the other seats. He briefed that PLP sent for Mayor, Chairperson and the 30 seats in both the Municipality and District Councils. He added that UDM sent names for the Mayor of the Municipality and Chairperson of the District Council no Councilors.
He narrated that an independent aspirant had approached them on the Friday which was the final day of enquiring about the nomination fee for independent candidates. He was told the application should be done at the headquarters in Freetown. According to the Commission’s Education and Training Officer, he did not return again to the Commission.