That President Julius Maada Bio is fully aware of the current employment posting of his newly nominated National Electoral Commission Mohamed Kenewui Konneh who is the Director of Financial Intelligent Unit as a chairman of NEC.
His selection is not fair and he is not qualify for the position in the face of the laws of the country, hence such move by President Bio and the Government must be reversed now before it is too late and ends up exposing the Government and the ruling party’s covert intentions to tamper with the outcome of the approaching 2023 presidential elections.
The President’s move has been questioned by leaders of all opposition political party leaders who were not consulted by President Bio even making such a unilateral decision that has already contravened sections of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone, only to please the selfish desires of his ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party-SLPP.
As by law the choice of candidate of President Bio is not fit for the NEC job for couple of reasons ranging from his questionable eligibility to be voted for as Member of Parliament, what it takes for him to serve as staff of the commission he is being handpicked to head, which is why President must reverse his decision and re-nominate another candidate from among NEC staff for the job instead of the Director of FIU, Konneh to head NEC.
And gone are the days when bad examples were wrongly emulated, so lets do things as in sync with international best practices, for the world is watching.
In the very specifics on why the presidential nominee is not qualify, is that Konneh has already failed in his current office, not to talk of placing him on a bigger assignment as NEC.
Apart from his blunders at the FIU, Konneh is not a staff of NEC as mandated by law to be eligible for the NEC chairmanship as stipulated by Section 321 (1 to 4) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone, which clearly states that a member of NEC shall be appointed by the President after constructive consultations with leaders of all political parties, which didn’t happen in the nomination of President Bio’s nominee for the NEC chairmanship job.
Thus far, the nomination of Konneh by President Bio has since last week’s announcement received severe bashing from people across the board with serious concerns on why Government should be taking such a unilateral decision in a democratic dispensation which is expected to be done collectively in consultation with the leaderships of all political parties.