Weekend of Congresses

Over the past week, at least four political parties in the country held their congresses. The PDOIS, PPP, GDC, and the NCP all held congresses to elect their leaders and standard-bearers. Some of the elections were hard fought and they came out with their chosen leaders. These congresses are in line with the electoral laws of the country which stipulate that every registered political party has to conduct a congress once every two years or risk being deregistered. It could be recalled that a few months ago, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) issued an ultimatum to parties who had not yet held the congress. Thus, this week, many parties held theirs. The most interesting contest was the one that took place at the PPP congress where seventy-two year old former vice president Bakary B Darbo was pitched against the relatively newcomer Mr Papa Njie. Mr Njie emerged victorious but the celebrations were short-lived as a section of the party has cried foul claiming that there were irregularities which have affected the outcome. Whether these party militants will continue to pursue this is yet to be known but it certainly has the potential to affect the party and its performance in the upcoming elections. If they are unable to settle their differences in an amicable and timely manner, they may take a hit which may give their opponents an edge over them.]]>