By Dadson A. Musa
The Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC) has on the 11th. and 12th. March trained political party representatives on dispute resolution within their respective political parties. At the Bo District Council hall, Jeneh J. A. Amadu who chaired the occasion reminded the participants that they ” are gathered as one family so everyone should view themselves not as people from different political parties.” The session was a training- of- trainers workshop so that they go back and implement the dispute resolution for peace to reign first in their respective parties and then the country as a whole. Funded by the European Union in partnership with IDEA International. This training was borne after realizing that most or all political parties lack conflict redress mechanisms.
The chairperson of the occasion opened the session by highlighting the root causes of conflict. ” That conflict arises because of tribal and regional alliances, lack of transparency and accountability, wrong leadership, lack of proper internal party democracy, etc” . That conflicts in political parties are traced back to the founding of the first political party in Sierra Leone in 1951. And that sections 34 and 35 of the Sierra Leone constitution gives the PPRC right to exist. The PPRC exists to; mediate and settle disputes between and among political parties, facilitate dialogue between and among political parties, sanction transgressions of the law, register and regulate the affairs of political parties and monitor internal democratic processes of political parties..” Benigna Ejimba, the Program Officer for IDEA International in her presentation said that ” the root causes of conflicts in Sierra Leone stem from low literacy levels, marginalization of youths, persons with disabilities and women, lack of clear and articulated ideology, disgruntled people coming together to form political parties and nothing about policies.” Participants were formed into groups to come out with their causes for conflicts.
Jeneh J. A. Amadu who is the Director of Mediation at PPRC rounded up by saying that ” at the end of the day political parties must channel their disputes so that there is always a win win situation for all and training aims to avoid people in political parties taking their disputes to court.” Final feedbacks were received from the participants and the vote of thanks was given by Joseph Kobi of CDP.
Copyright –Published in Expo Times News on Wednesday, March 13th , 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)
