By Ralph Sesay
The National Electoral Commission has concluded nominations for Village headman elections in Waterloo, Malambay and Cole Town villages, respectively, on Sunday 28th and Monday 29th April,2019.
Speaking to the nightwatch press, Desmond A.A. Jones, Chief of Media and External Relations, National Electoral Commission, stated that the vacancies for the elections of headmen in the Waterloo, Malambay and Cole Town Villages occurred as a result of the death of all three headmen.
The process, he continued, started with the Chief Administrator of the Western Area Rural District Council informing the National Electoral Commission of the said vacancies in all three villages as a result of the death of the village heads.
Next, Mr. Jones went on, was for the National Electoral Commission to declare the seats vacant and also establishing timelines for the conduct of fresh elections in these villages as provided for in the Local Government Act of 2004.
The first in such timelines, according to Mr. Jones, was the conduct of nominations. He disclosed that three candidates each have provisionally been nominated for Waterloo and Cole Town villages while none has appeared for Malambay Village.
Alusine H. Sesay, veteran Educationist, Elizabeth Betts and Leslie Oseh Whenzle, former headman for over two decades, have all been nominated provisionally for the Waterloo headman elections, while Mabinty Turay, Sullay Kamara and Ibrahim Sorie Sesay also went through provisionally for Cole Town.
The Chief of Media also told nightwatch that the Commission would hold a stakeholder’[s meeting on the 9th May, 2019 at the Waterloo Rural District Council in the presence of electoral management bodies and the security sector and a campaign calendar will be officially announced to all the candidates.
He also noted that the nominations are subject to petition by registered voters of any of the three villages against the candidacy of the nominated candidates in twenty hours’ period.
In another development the District Elections Officer, Western Area Rural, Madam Rosetta Thomas, also told nightwatch that they are very unsatisfied over the attitude of the Police in Waterloo, who are downplaying a matter of electoral fraud reported to their station against one Ansumanah Mogbeney Sesay of 38 Leddle Street Waterloo.
Ansumanah Mogbeney Sesay has presented a fake voter identification card when he turned up to nominate Alusine Sesay, one of the candidates.
NEC, according to the DEO, has forwarded exhibits of the fake registration bearing the names and details of the alleged fraudster together with statements of two officers.
It is regrettable that the Police in Waterloo have released the suspect the same day and even when the DEO turned up together with the Chief of Media, NEC, to get update on the matter, nothing reasonable was discovered and the suspect was not in Police custody.
Many have blasted the Police who are supposed to prosecute offenders of electoral fraud rather than condoning such matters. Efforts to get the authorities at the Waterloo Police Station to speak to the press proved futile as we go to press, but we can confirm that the suspect is not in custody.