{"id":45711,"date":"2012-08-05T00:42:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T00:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=45711"},"modified":"2012-08-05T00:42:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-05T00:42:00","slug":"if-you-dont-have-the-le25-million-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=45711","title":{"rendered":"If you don\u2019t have the Le25 million \u2013 quit!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minority Leader in the House of Parliament, Hon: Emmanuel W. Tommy has stated in clear terms that “the Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Christiana Thorpe wants to turn Sierra Leone into a one party state with her imposition of the huge sums of money for registration of Presidential candidates, Members of Parliament, Mayor\/Chairpersons of Councils and Councilors\u2026” \u201cThe APC as a Party in government has money\u201d, says SLPP Hon: Emmanuel W. Tommy. These extracts were statements uttered by Hon: Emmanuel .W. Tommy in a front page article published by Awoko Newspaper -Thursday edition- 2nd<\/sup> August, 2012.\u00a0 (Photo: Moses Lamin Kamara, author)<\/em><\/p>\n

In my opinion, it sounds despicable for a parliamentarian of such caliber to utter such a statement. Hon. Tommy and others want diplomatic passports for them and their families, they want to be called honourables, collect huge monthly salaries, and above all want credible results in the forthcoming elections, but they don\u2019t want to pay the price. One thing that we most know is that politics is a game for all but at different stages and classes. Each and every one of us should try to know where we belong and play our cards there.<\/p>\n

For the past fifteen years I have been clapping and jumping for main strain politicians. With all my academic qualifications and popularity, I did it because political nature has placed me there. So those who cannot afford the money that will give us credible elections should join us to play the political card where we belong.<\/p>\n

One gospel truth is that NEC needs Le 88B, approximately $20M\u00a0 to conduct the forthcoming elections and 52%of the money comes from the taxes we pay at different quarters. The citizens of this country have contributed to this; why not you who will be the direct beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

Hon. Tommy, this is not an issue of political blame. What is in public domain is that NEC is an independent body established by an Act of Parliament and the Electoral Law went through the same process so neither APC nor SLPP can influence its decision.<\/p>\n

It is good for all to know that one of the things that\u00a0 as placed us top in the international scene was due to the credible elections that we conducted in 2007. We were able to achieve it because of the extreme donor contributions.\u00a0 Now the international community is expecting us to contribute 52%; where do you think the money should come from?<\/p>\n

If we don\u2019t have the said amount to conduct credible elections, then hell will break loose and you and your family will leave the country for overseas whilst we the poor ones will be killing ourselves.<\/p>\n

Truly speaking, I know of somebody who is aspiring for the APC Symbol in Constituency 85. When this announcement was made by NEC, his supporters said if only the party can give him the symbol, then they will fund-raise for him. So the honourables who claim that they love by the people do like \u2013wise.<\/p>\n

My simple advice is that if you don\u2019t have the money to contest, quit!<\/p>\n

By: Moses Lamin Kamara<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Minority Leader in the House of Parliament, Hon: Emmanuel W. Tommy has stated in clear terms that “the Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[692,1],"tags":[937],"class_list":["post-45711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-uncategorized","tag-sierra-leone-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}