Post a comment
Ezra M. Bangura, the Parliamentary candidate of the National Grand Coalition (NGC), has confirmed that he has withdrawn his candidacy from the bye elections in Constituency 073, Port Loko District.
In an interview with Ezra, he confirmed to Awoko Newspaper that the decision to withdraw was unanimously made by him and his party and a withdrawal letter has been sent to the National Electoral Commission (NEC).
Commenting on the reason for the withdrawal, Ezra said “NGC is a member of COPP and so is the All Peoples Congress (APC). We are already together, so if we are, there is no need to get two candidates. COPP is trying to present one candidate come the election 2023, so it has to start now and as such we should not be seen fighting each other.”
Ezra and his party now stand with the APC candidate Oye Issa Koroma. According to Section 64 of the Public Elections Act, 2012 (Act No.4 of 2012) “A candidate may withdraw his nomination by notice in writing signed by him and endorsed by the political party to which he belongs, and delivered by him to the Returning Officer. (a) the notice of withdrawal shall take effect in the order in which it is delivered; and (b) no notice shall have effect if it would result in there being no candidate in respect of a vacancy in an electoral area.”
It could be recalled that four political parties, APC, NGC, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) completed their nomination process of 16th and 17th February 2022 for the said bye-election scheduled for Saturday, 26th March 2022.
According to Awoko Newspaper, Constituency 073 has 23 Polling Centres and 63 Polling Stations with 17,945 registered voters. The major towns/chiefdoms include Koya, Magbontoso, Sumbuya, Mamamah, Songo, Rokon, etc.
