Barely three months after conducting a
highly contested presidential and parliament polls, the National
Electoral Commission (NEC) of Sierra Leone is putting its house in
order to organise the local government polls scheduled for next year.
The
ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) of the former President Ahmed
Tejan Kabbah was defeated at the polls by the opposition candidate,
Ernest Bai Koroma. riting.
NEC officials yesterday told a news conference in the capital Freetown
that they would simultaneously conduct on chairpersons, mayors and
councillors contests.
This is the first time chairpersons and mayors will be elected by the
electorate, a complete deviation from the past when elected councillors
were mandated to choose among themselves.
The Director of Operations at NEC, Nfah Conteh, assured the use of Universal Suffrage system during the polls.
He also said voters will vote using an updated version of the voter register used in the August/September polls.
Meanwhile, the SLPP has dragged NEC to court for nullifying some four
hundred thousand votes in the East and Southern regions of the country
in the September presidential run-off without a court order. The party
said the commission had overstepped its powers.
NEC\'s lawyer argued that the High Court lacked jurisdiction to preside
over the case. He was ordered by the presiding Judge, Mary Sei, to put
his objection in w
