Some members of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) in North America (USA) have petitioned the Regional Chapter election which was conducted on 27th March 2021, and requested for a full re-run under the 2021 NEC approved Political Party Registration Commission (PPRC) gazetted Rules and Regulations.

Among the concerns raised by the members to PPRC are that Article 20 Clause 2 (E) provides for inclusion of Elections Rule and Regulations in NEC approved party Rules and Regulations Under which election must be held. The current Rules and Regulations of the SLPP were published in the Gazette of 24th March 2021. They stated that the Chapter elections in North America were conducted on March 20th against the advice of the Regional Executive before the current Rules and Regulations took effect under PPRC gazette. The letter furthered that the finalized rules and regulations of 2021 were significantly different from the previous party published Rules and Regulations that were in effect for the Chapter, so no election should have been conducted until they take effect and it was only done in North America which was discriminatory.

They also state that the NEC approved published schedule from the emergency SLPP NEC meeting on Thursday 25th February 2021 which said Chapter election were to be held on 17 April 2021, and regional election 24th April 2021 was not compiled with as the Chapter elections were conducted on March 20th 2021, with the regional election held on March 27th 2021..

Furthermore “Clause 2 (14) in the Rules and Regulations 2021 says no person shall hold two positions in the party at the same time. Yet several candidates including the current chairman elect Mr Desmond Pessima who was elected Secretary General of the Delaware Valley Chapter and current Vice – President elect Mr Mohamed Daboh who was also elected Treasurer of the DC Metro Chapter, were both allowed to run and win regional positions despite having won chapter positions in the same election.”

The Petitioners said a petition filed challenging the eligibility of those candidates to Mr. Victor Tarmoh, head of Diaspora Independent Election Monitoring and Oversight Committee prior to the regional election, wasn’t addressed.