By Juliana Vandy
Strategic Communications Unit - MIC
The Political Parties Registration Commission has on Thursday 19th August 2021 updated senior staff of the Ministry of Information and Communications about the reforms the commission is undertaking at the Ministry’s conference room 8th-floor Youyi building Freetown.
Addressing staff at the meeting, the PPRC chairperson Mr Abdulai Bangura thanked the Ministry for according them the opportunity to update the staff on the activities of the commission.
He said that the commission was a creation of Parliament based on Section 35 of the 1991 constitution of Sierra Leone and was established in 2002.
He said the mandate of the Commission is to register political parties, supervise and monitor their activities and conducts.
He dilated that the principal purpose of their visit is to discuss the Commission’s legal reforms and the extent to which they have gone with it. Explaining further, the chairperson said that after the 2018 elections, observers made some recommendations in their report about the enhancement of elections processes and practices in Sierra Leone which were worthy of note. "Some of these recommendations if enacted will enhance the capacities of all elections management bodies (EMBs) and will also lead to the conduct of more credible and fairer elections," he said.
He revealed that a task force was formed to look into all of the recommendations and come out with a workable blueprint. Some he said, had to do with administration and others are legal matters which require review.
He disclosed that those that had to do with the instrument that set up the Commission were reviewed and amended so that it can foster the mandate of the commission.
He divulged that the Commission has been engaged in compliance with those recommendations to ensure that the PPRC Act is reviewed and deemed it necessary for the Ministry of Information to be in the know of how far they have gone with the process.
He said the commission has seventeen political parties under their supervision and monitor.
Outlining the reforms the Commission is contemplating, he cited a change of name, the addition of a commissioner, review of the mandate in terms of mediation within political parties, the extension of the right to complain to ordinary party members, increase in the registration fees of political parties amongst others.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications Mr Kwame Yankson on behalf of the Minister of Information and Communications pledged his Ministry’s commitment to working with the Commission in their public education drive.