Ahead of OMFA Elections, CEC urges voters to "see themselves as friends together"

​By; Alusine Rehme Wilson 

As over five hundred delegates gear up to cast their votes for other executive members of the Old Makeni Franciscan Association-(OMFA), Paramount Chief Kandeh “Gbetgbo” Bangura,  the new OMFA returning officer has called on voters to drop all differences and see themselves as friends together.

“Our upcoming elections are not about me or anyone, it’s about entrusting our Association’s hope on a few individuals to lead the road towards making our school forever great," he said.

Stressing that, all OMFA members who have the school’s progress at heart must put behind them all the differences that have occurred in the past especially the most recent once that happened in December last year which led to stepping down of the two OMFA Presidential Aspirants Mr. Abdul Topo Bundu and Mr. Musa Timothy Kabba as well as Mr. Milton A. Koroma one of the two aspiring Vice Presidents.

On this note, I want to seek calm from all OMFA members leading into Saturday’s election. Please remember one of the stanza from our school song that: “Boys of Saint Francis we’re  friends together, keep the banner high, pleased the CEC, reiterating  that the anticipated elections which were abruptly postponed indefinitely due to obstruction from some OMFA Members led by Lawyer Abubakarr “Boniface” who alarmed over some alleged irregularities with the final voters registers, on Saturday, 3rd December 2022 during their 64 year anniversary celebration, will go on as planned this Saturday, 14th January 2023.

Saying, both the nominations and decelerations windows have all been closed by the OMFA Elections Commission and being that there is only one president aspirant at the moment and no contesting vice president, his commission will soon release by Friday night the voting slip sample that will bear each and every aspiring member’s face, name and position contested for, to let voters know their candidates before voting on Saturday.

“We’ve held several meetings and as the body charged to run the affairs of OMFA elections we’ve successfully reassessed and corrected all duplication of names and other irregularities on the then voters registers which has over 600 delegates and the current voters register as revised and already published shows a total number of 588 eligible voters for Saturday elections which allows every delegate to only show proof of identification as a legal OMFA member,” explained CEC Bangura.