The Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC) has given the All People’s Congress (APC) directives to rerun Ward Executive Elections in some parts of the country including 17 wards in Kono where intense fighting took place during the voting.
This directive came after a thorough review of the evidence adduced before the PPRC by both sides. “We are satisfied that the petitions from the Wards and Constituencies…have been successfully proven and are therefore upheld”, the PPRC notes in its ruling.
Furthermore, the PPRC has also directed the APC five-man registration subcommittee to conduct registration exercise on 13 January 2023 in each of the Constituencies in which there are Wards to be rerun. “All holders of valid bank slips and ITGC receipts that are issued before 28 December 2022 and who present themselves before the designated registrars are to be registered”, the PRRC states.
“There should be no proxy registration of holders of those documents, who do not present themselves before the registrars….The ITGC [is] to issue out party cards to holders of bank payment slips and ITGC receipts already inputted into their database…The ITGC to update the voter register in all the wards that are to be rerun and make it available to the TIIEMC in time for the rerun elections”, the PPRC directs further.
However, the PPRC states that “there are evidence that some of the petitioners were themselves perpetrators of violence and obstructive conduct. They failed to substantiate their complaints and by extension failed to prove their petitions before the Commission”.
In conclusion, the PPRC notes that: “the TIIEMC therefore deserves every commendation for the miraculous successful conduct of the elections, in almost eighty five percent of the wards, without an issue, in the face of all these daunting challenges. We reached this conclusion by reason of the fact that we received petitions from only twenty-seven out of the one hundred and thirty-two Constituencies. This is an accolade of no mean feat”.
It could be recalled that on Thursday 29 December 2022 and Tuesday 3 January 2023, in partial compliance with the Judgment and Rulings of Justice Adrian Fisher, the APC conducted its Ward Executive Elections countrywide. Subsequent to those elections, the PPRC received a total of 39 petitions from various Wards nationwide.