In press statement issued by the Political Parties registration Commission (PPRC) dated 5th August 2022 and signed by the chairman of the PPRC Abdulia M. Bangura, it was stated that the Political Parties registration Commission received letter dated on 25th July 2022, from the representative of the legal team, in the twenty one man interim transitional government committee of the All Peoples Congress party, alluding to a number of issues relating to the conduct of the said committee. The Political Parties registration Commission in response to the letter of the representative of the legal team, on the 1st August 2022, PPRC summoned a meeting of the entire committee at the conference room of the Office of National Security and the meeting was having the full complement of the membership of the committee.
In his opening statement, the chairman of the commission made it clear that the meeting was called to interpret the judgement of Hon. Adrian Fisher J, delivered on the 8th April 2022, as that is the exclusive preserved of His Lordship that delivered same and that the commission does not hold such pretension.
He continued to say that the committee is creation of the court and His Lordship presided over same, did not expressly put under the supervision of the commission, as he did for the transitional interne independent electoral management committee. He said the committee is not under the supervision of the PPRC. Legal B. of the PPRC said that the PPRC is oblivious of the fact, the mandate conferred on the committee, is to temporarily superintend over the affairs of the All peoples Congress and the commission be the oversight body that supervise the activities of all registered political parties, is obligated to ensure that, the committee tends to the best interest of the party at all time.
The chairman said the meeting was convened, in protection of the party’s interest, against the unfortunate emerging wrangling between the two sides of the divide in the committee. The commission listed to members of the committee, the following: there is no fierce rivalry between the nine members nominated by the chairman of the commission and the twelve members nominated by the party, the contention was in respect of the following: what constitute a quorum for the meeting of the committee, the appointment of interim district chairman of the party, by the chairman of the committee, and the constitution of the transitional interim independent electoral management committee, by the component of the ITGC nominated by the party, to the exclusion of the component nominated by the chairman.
To keep with the PPRC advisory role in this context, aimed at furthering the interest of the party and in line with our perception of His Lordship’s intention and spirit of his judgement aforementioned, we hereby proffer the following pieces of advice:
- Tha the quorum for all meetings of the committee must not be less than eleven of its members. This is informed of the fact that, His Lordship in his judgement was very unequivocal, when he stated in paragraph 90(10) (6) of same that, all decisions of the committee shall be by a simple majority. It follows therefore that, a meeting attended by less than eleven members, cannot reach a decision of the committee. Any interpretation to the contrary, is in our opinion, self-serving and recipe for disagreement amongst the committee’s members.
- Also, we are of the considered opinion that, the committee cannot pray aid to provision of the party’s constitution, in justification of any of its act, save those provisions expressly mentioned in His Lordship judgement. This is so because; they are not a creation of that instrument. Therefore invoking provisions of the party’s constitution to constitute a quorum, is with the utmost respect untenable constitution and its mandate is defined in the judgement it is an offshoot of.
- That all bodies constituted by the committee, should in the interest of cohesion and peace, reflect its membership ratio and/or spread. This is with a view to capturing His Lordship’s intention, of letting both sides of the divide participate in running affairs of the party, till its organ are properly constituted. Anything short of this will only widen the divide and plunge the party into more undue hardship. We therefore for instance, suggest the following composition of the twenty one man transitional interim independent electoral management committee. The Alfred Peter Conteh component of the committee ten members and the party component fourteen members, distributed as follows, eight members of parliament, two each from the women’s congress, youth congress and the diaspora.
- the commission reading the second limb of paragraph 90 (10) (4) of the judgement aforementioned, in tandem with article 13 (f&g) of the party’s 2022 Constitution cited therein, is of the view that, members that resigned, expelled or otherwise forfeited their membership of the party, can only be reinstated or readmitted, by the national delegates conference organ of the party.
The PPRC concluded by reminding the membership of the committee that, the electoral circle is at hand and time is of the essence. You owe it to the owners of the party, (the ordinary memberships), to put aside your personal or group interest for now, in furtherance of the party’s interest
