By Mohamed Jalloh
The presidential aspirant of the Coalition for Change political party, Chief Alhaji Samuel Sam Sumana, may drag the National Electoral Commission to the Supreme Court over what his party referred to as huge election malpractices and irregularities accompanying the March 7th polls.
He was commenting on the general conduct of the polls after the announcement of results by the Chief Electoral Commissioner (NEC) and National Returning Officer, N’fa Alie Conteh, in the popular Good Morning Salone Program at FM 98.1 Radio.
The former Vice President cited a particular polling station where his family and the rest of his immediate staff voted and only a single vote was recorded for his party.
“We had forwarded these irregularities to NEC but because they wanted to meet the seven days clause deadline for the announcement of results they deliberately ignored our observations of fraud, especially in the Western Area and other parts of the country,” the Coalition for Change candidate stated.
He also disclosed that his face was hardly visible on the ballot paper in some polling stations in the North of the country. “Kono, a district of over 185,000 people, where the C4C won all the contested seats in the district, had failed to garner 90,000 votes even across the country. This is simply a questionable result for us as a party,” Samuel Sam Sumana went on.
The C4C standard bearer said that there were instances of violence, intimidation and the huge presence of armed military personnel in polling stations was widespread and systematic, and this, according to him, was what scared away potential voters to come out and vote in numbers for his party.
He noted that during one of his campaign rallies in Kono district, the Resident Minister, Eastern Province, Karamoh Kabba, struck his car with supporters of the party who were on their campaign rally.
According to him, the matter was reported to the police but no arrests have been made up to date.
Alhaji Sam Sumana pointed out that, because of his earlier commitment to peace and stability, he has no option but to resort to the rule of law.
He concluded that despite desperate attempts by the APC to strangulate and prevent the C4C from becoming a registered political party, the people have shown that the party is a force to reckon with.
When quizzed about which party he will throw his political weight behind in the runoff, the Chief was very philosophical, “I will join the better of the two political evils in the country,” he revealed.