 FREETOWN (AFP) — Three of the seven political parties that contested last
year's legislative elections in Sierra Leone have been judged ineligible for
upcoming polls in March, a commission said Saturday.
"We've just visited all seven offices of the the various parties throughout
the country and found that only four are functioning according to the law," said
Kemoh Mansaray from the National Political Parties Commission (NPPC).
"The others have vanished without trace and their doors are shut. Neighbours
said they left just after the results of the last general elections were
announced and nobody has been back since," Mansaray added.
The four parties still "on track" according to the official were: the ruling
All People's Congress (APC); the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party
(SLPP); the small opposition People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC); and
the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which did not win a single seat in the
last elections.
Those who were ineligible were the Convention People's Party (CPP), the Peace
and Liberation Party (PLP) and the United National People's Party (UNPP), he
said.
Under the country's electoral laws, the Commission is mandated "to re-check
whether political parties are still in existence whenever local or parliamentary
elections are held before they are allowed to take part."
AFP:
Three Sierra-Leonean parties ineligible for polls
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