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The Chief Electoral Commissioner of the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL), Mohamed Kenewui Konneh has said that the Commission will give a 48-hour ultimatum to political parties to meet the 30 percent women’s quota as required by law.
Konneh said it was deliberate when Parliament gave directive based on the regulation to political parties to accede to the 30 percent quota in the submission of the list.
“Some political parties try to be smart, in the sense, by referencing a male candidate as a female candidate,” Konneh said.
He said that the exercise is a ploy by some parties to bypass the system they have created in order to adhere to the regulation.
“We are going to write to them to correct with a limited time and failure to do that we will reject the entire list for that district,” the Chief Electoral Commissioner said.
He said the law mandates them to reject the nomination that fail to reach the said requirement.
Konneh blamed some politicians of being behind the ploy.
The Commissioner said that the ECSL meet with political parties every two weeks to address salient issues related to transparency ahead of the 24 June polls.
“We are concerned with remaining with the boundaries of the law to conduct free and fair elections,” he said.
