The former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, has responded to a recent tweet from the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) regarding presidential objections.

ECSL had announced via Twitter that presidential objections would not be entertained after May 17th, 2023, and would instead need to be addressed to the Supreme Court.

“The public is reminded that all Presidential nominations are accepted provisionally until May 17 2023 which is the deadline for objections to the Supreme Court,” the tweet read.

In response to this tweet, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara retweeted to state that the ECSL had no power over matters related to presidential objections.

He emphasized that the ECSL’s authority ended with the acceptance of nominations, and that any objections issued thereafter would not fall under their purview.

He also questioned why the ECSL was commenting on a matter that was not within their jurisdiction and could not be adjudicated by them.

“I beg to differ. Objections will not be addressed to ECSL; but the Supreme Court. Why consider a matter not addressed to you? And for which you do not have jurisdiction to adjudicate? The moment Nomination is Gazetted it is final, ECSL becomes functus (lacks power to re-examine)”.