By Hasbin Shaw in Freetown, Sierra Leone
The opposition National Grand Coalition (NGC) has made its intention known that it will not subscribe to any act of unconstitutionality. Four members of the NGC recently abstained from participating in the elections for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Sierra Leonean House of Parliament.
Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, leader of the NGC Party in Parliament told our Freetown Correspondent that his Party would not endorse the replacement of APC’s unconstitutionality with what he described as “Junta Democracy”.
He made the comments in an interview after the conclusion of the Parliament Speaker and Deputy Speaker elections.
Yumkella said that their decision to abstain was unanimous, adding, “What we did today was a collective decision. We are here to respect the constitution and the standing orders. We cannot be intimidated by numbers. If we were intimidated by numbers we would not be contesting election, we are here for a clear purpose and that is to represent our people.
The NGC leader further said, “We cannot validate or justify what we considered as an unconstitutional process, when 48% of the parliament was removed forcefully by police…and it is wrong.”
Dr. Yumkella said that his party has always been in the frontline standing against unconstitutionality even when the APC was ruling, “So the SLPP is not an exception,” he added.
“We stood against the APC when their acts were unconstitutional, especially at a time when Ernest Bai Koroma unconstitutionally dismissed the Vice President, Alhaji Sam Sumana. we went around the country preaching, “enough to unconstitutionality”, so nobody is an exception,” he said.
