By Saio Marrah
An Appeal Court Judge, Justice Monfred Sesay, has said the judiciary of Leone has set up a court for election offences and petitions coming from election disputes, that will be addressed within four months.
Justice Sesay disclosed this to stakeholders at a Seminar on the state of the electoral justice system in Sierra Leone held at the Country Lodge Hotel in Freetown on Thursday 23rd March 2023.
The programme was organised by a local civil society organization, Centre for Rule of Law and Accountability (CARL).
He said the creation of the special high court division is part of the election case management tools by the judiciary to support and enhance the speedy, efficient and transparent disposal of electoral cases that will be taken to the court for redress.
He said such a court emanated from a High Court Division Order under constitutional instrument No.12 of 2022, and that the Chief Justice will take the next step of appointing judges that will hold sittings across the country.
According to him, this will make the court easily accessible to potential litigants in their immediate electoral communities which will reduce the burden cause of having to travel long distances to access a court.
He said supervisory judges will also be appointed at regional or provincial levels for those special courts, whose duties he said will be to monitor the sitting judges, address their administrative needs and also file reports on the decisions of those courts.
He also noted that all election- related cases will not be sent to magistrate courts for preliminary investigation, but straight to high court.
Justice Sesay also pointed out that the judiciary is seriously underfunded to the extent that the Chief Justice at some point had to beg the Ministry of Finance to assist with some basic amenities like vehicle, computers, and stationeries for the work of judiciary.
According to him most judges do not even have a vehicle which he said put their lives at a high risk.
The Director of Operations of the Sierra Leone Police, Assistant Inspector General, Braima Jah in his statement talked about how the Police have put in place a special investigation unit across the country that will deal with election related matters including expediting cases to court.
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