Women in the media Sierra Leone (WIMSAL) Monday threatened to hold back their participation in all Sierra Leone association of journalists' activities if the chief electoral commissioner in the just concluded SLAJ elections insists on recounting the votes for the position of national organizing secretary.

WIMSAL's statement came after the defeated candidate for the position, Amadu Daramy, sent a letter to the electoral commissioner petitioning Hawa Tucker, the already declared winner.

"The electoral commissioner southern province, Dominc Lamin, confirmed that I polled 37 votes instead of the 13 votes announced by Samuel John in Freetown. This blatant anomaly deprived me of 24 solid votes that could have made me the winner," Daramy's petition stated in parts.

But according to WIMSAL: "We view this move as a ploy to prevent female representation in SLAJ. WIMSAL would be left with no alternative but to withdraw our entire participation in SLAJ if the commissioner insists on recounting the votes. The recently concluded SLAJ elections were conducted in a transparent manner and the commissioner duly declared Hawa Georgette Tucker as winner for the position of organizing secretary."

WIMSAL said they are against the recounting of the votes because there was a tendency for figures to be inflated.

If there was any error in the initial result, the release stated, the electoral commissioner must be held responsible.

Chief electoral commissioner SLAJ, Samuel John said the commission will today hold a meeting to deliberate on the petition.

Meanwhile, members of the dream team of the candidacy of Philip Neville have expressed gratitude to journalists who exercised their franchise in the recently contested elections in which Umaru 'Obama' Fofana's team emerged victorious by clinching five out of the seven contested positions.