To date, only three political parties have met the requirements of the PPRC Act 2022 to be eligible to participate in June’s presidential elections.
2023 Elections: Only 3 Political Parties May Contest
The Chairman of the Political Parties’ Regulation Commission (PPRC), Abdulai Masiyambay Bangura, announced that only 3 political parties have met the eligibility requirements in Political Parties Act of 2022 to contest the June 2023 presidential elections in Sierra Leone.
Director of Training, Lucien Henry Leonard Momoh, and External Relations Officer at the PPRC said, only three political parties – the main opposition All Peoples Congress party (APC), the National Grand Coalition (NGC), and the incumbent Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) had established nationwide offices, conducted lower-level elections, delegate conferences and selected flag bearers. Momoh further stated that all other political parties but the 3 listed above are eligible as per the law to contest the elections.
However, SLAJ i-Verify Sierra Leone has found out that Mr Bangura’s sentence is not definitive but conditional because of the word (may) which is a conditional probability. The former if quite different from (shall) which by law is an un-amendable word.
In essence, other political parties could join the presidential race as and when they fulfil all eligibility criteria as stated in the 2022 Public Elections Act.
