By Jonathan Leigh.
The process of filing of nomination papers by
presidential candidates is underway in Freetown and on
the second day on Wednesday, three of them were
granted provisional nomination.
On the first day of the exercise on Tuesday, the
Convention People’s Party were the first to
successfully go through the process in line with a
time table of how the parties should present
themselves at NEC Headquarters, Wellington in the east
of Freetown for nomination.
CPP which has Andrew Turay as it flag bearer, only
submitted names of its candidates after the expiration
of the deadline on June 26 and despite the late
submission, were still unable to present aspirants for
the Parliamentary elections.
Its running mate is Lansana Conteh who, like Andrew
Turay, was a member of the defunct Young People’s
Party, is hardly known in Sierra Leone
politics.
Wednesday saw the PMDC and PLP filing their respective
nomination papers to be followed on Thursday by the
UNPP and APC, Friday by the NDA and Saturday by the
ruling SLPP.
Also on Tuesday, the NDA named Margaret Baimba Sidikie
as its running mate. Party Leader Alhaji Amadu Jalloh
described his decision from the realization that women
are devoted, competent and capable than men in
promoting politics and maintaining good governance.
This comes a day after Vice-President Solomon Berewa
named Foreign Minister Momodu Koroma as the preferred
choice of the SLPP, a decision that party faithfuls
had warmly embraced. Then on Wednesday, the APC named
a little known businessman, Sam Ansumana from Kono
district as its running mate
Presidential aspirants will have to pay a non-
refundable nomination fee of one million Leones. And
seven days after the exercise would have been over,
NEC shall officially publish the names of the
Presidential candidates and their running mates to
make it possible for any objection there might be to be
challenged in the Supreme Court.
Also in progress is the nomination of Parliamentary
candidates which is taking place at constituency level
all over the country and according to NEC, objections
raised will not be settled in the law court but
instead by the Commission. In all, seven parties will
now contest the elections on August 11th.
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