By Ayodele Deen-Cole
The National Executive of the Youth League of the main opposition
All People’s Congress (APC) and its corresponding APC Veterans Organization has
recently been reportedly holding series of in-house meetings to decide which
process they will be using to choose the next executive, ahead of the party’s National
Delegates’ Conference, scheduled to take place in February next year.
Few days ago, the National Secretary General of the APC,
Ambassador Alhaji Osman Foday Yansaneh issued a press release notifying party
members of the forthcoming internal party elections which, according to him,
will be done using the election/selection clause of the party’s 1995 Constitution.
However, a cross-section of party members known as the
National Reformation Movement (NRM) have opposed the party executive for the
using of such a controversial clause after it was vehemently opposed by a good
number of party members.
Speaking to this press after the conclusion of one of such
meetings, a senior member of the APC Youth League who is also a member of the
party’s media team, Mohamed Pope Kamara said that for the forthcoming
elections, the party is going to depend on its current 1995 Constitution as a
guiding tool for the conduct of its elections.
He noted that under the 1995 Constitution, the party can
either elect or select executive members to serve in several key positions
within the party, adding that there is going to be elections in some areas and
selections in other areas.
Mohamed Pope Kamara continued to explain that the party
cannot, for now, use the new revised constitution, as according to him, it was
not deliberated and approved by the National Advisory Council (NAC) of the
party.
He continued that when the party wanted to sit on the said
revised document, some members took legal actions against it which, he said, ended
up stalling the entire process.
Pope Kamara further noted that the party cannot wait for them
and that it has to use provisions of the current 1995 Constitution to carry out
it political activities.
Another senior member of APC Veterans’ Organisation, Sam Sesay
also spoke on the same issue and supported the party’s decision on that.
Both organs of the party have promised to use the clause during
the forthcoming delegates’ conference.
