Hon. Halifa Sallah, Secretary General PDOIS.
By Ramatoulie Jawo
People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) Secretary General and Party Leader, Honorable Halifa Sallah, told the press that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) had acknowledged that the results they announced for Bartez ward were inaccurate and promised to remedy the situation.
Honorable Halifa Sallah said that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) had announced the actual votes that were cast for his party in all wards except Bartez.
“What we can say as a party is that when the counting was done, the number of votes that we had, what was cast is what was counted and was announced except for one ward and that is Bartez ward.
“That had been conveyed to the Independent Electoral Commission, and they acknowledged that the results they gave was not accurate, and they promised to remedy what was done,” he said.
Sallah further stated that it is up to each political party to ensure that the law is respected. He said that the IEC ethical code prohibits all forms of voter inducement.
“Essentially, each party needs to go back and examine whether these rules were respected during the voting process,” he said.
Hon Sallah analyzed the results and said that the performance of PDOIS should give its party members hope that the party is fit for purpose. He added that the party considered the performance to be exceptionally reasonable. He said that PDOIS considered national interest when filtering candidates, and that they wanted to ensure that persons with disabilities, women, and young people were represented in the party, as this is essential to eradicating political exclusion.
“When we were fielding these candidates, we were not only considering them winning, but we believed that it was a good start to break away from political exclusion,” he said.
Sallah said that the current system must be changed in order to allow for the full participation of women, youth, and persons with disabilities in electoral processes.