Public statement on SLAJ election irregularity
Kenema – March 26, 2011: All Journalists/Media Personnel, especially SLAJ Members and the Public are informed that an attempt by the Umaru Fofana faction of the SLAJ National Executive to fraudulently and criminally overpopulate the SLAJ National Electoral List by irregular and non-qualified voters have been uncovered. However, the fraud has been rectified due to the timely intervention of our Campaign Team.
The names of 29 out of 46 irregularly and illegally registered SLAJ members by the Credentials Committee led by the Outgoing Vice President Abdulrahman Swaray, were unprocedurally entered into both the SLAJ National Register and the National Voters Register presented to and published by the SLAJ Electoral Commission, in a deliberate attempt by the former to undermine the credibility of the electoral process and its outcome.
The already neutralised electoral criminality was uncovered between Monday and Tuesday this week, after the launch of the Mustapha 4 President Campaign and Manifesto, dubbed Vision 2011-2013 in the provinces.
The no-nonsense Electoral Commission led by Mr. Ransford Wright was immediately informed through an Objection Letter from Mr. Sesay. The matter was promptly investigated by the Commission and a decision reached to delete any of the affected names from the SLAJ Voter Register for breach of the eligibility requirement.
44 of those irregularly registered names were discovered in the SLAJ National Membership Register by the Commission and 29 who were illegally approved as delegates by the Kenema Biennial Conference Organizing Committee were discovered on the National and Regional Voters List.
The names of these 29 Unqualified Delegates with flawed voting rights who the Electoral Commission has confirmed are fully paid up, have been expunged from the voters list, with our vigilant Campaign Coordinators still helping the Commission to track two more illegally registered and illusive members/delegates.
Commending the Commission for their promptness and fairness, Mr Sesay, our President-in-the-Waiting cautioned that this latest move by his team must not in any way be misinterpreted by anyone including our affected colleagues in the media fraternity as an attempt to unduly disenfranchise them.
“Rather, it should be seen as a means of helping to observe some basic rules especially those relating to constitutionality and responsible leadership, the principles upon which my campaign for the Presidency and Manifesto are based”, Mr. Sesay added.
Meanwhile, confirmed report indicates that most of these applications were done this year, but were back-dated to 2010 in order to give certain applicants undue advantage over others.
In a related development, our Presidential Hopeful has requested for the public display of the revised national Voters List instant, in order to ensure that the names of eligible voters are not omitted and that non-eligible voters are not unintentionally listed.
Also, with a few hours to the elections, Mr. Sesay has personally appealed to the Commission to publicly display clearly defined samples of the ballot papers as a matter of urgency in order to minimize, if not avoid void votes under all circumstances.
Signed: Mustapha Juana, National Campaign Manager,Mustapha Sesay 4 President
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