By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
The National Council for Civic Education and Development (NACCED) in a seminar held at Youyi building urged citizens to come out in their numbers and register come September.
According to the Chairman of NACCED, Kalilu Totangi, the seminar was meant to develop messages in partnership with the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) and other election management bodies. He said, they want to provide support for ECSL towards the electioneering process, as they are now preparing for the voter registration exercise.
“We brought partners and other professionals to help us develop messages that would be appropriate to send out to the public so as to support ECSL and citizens to see the voter registration as their right. Citizens should come out and register and ensure they abide by the rules and regulations the electoral commission will give to them,” he said.
He noted that, for the last quarter of this year, they will focus on examining the voter registration process,and support it with skits, public service announcement and engaging people that are respected in communities to support this process so that they can send out the message directly to their community members for them to come out and register.
Totangi stated that messages will be disseminated using local languages to reach out to the people.
“We hope the messages disseminated will be effective and that is why we are involving professionals to ensure that the messages about voter registration reach out to the general public,” he said.
A representative from ECSL, Zainab Umu Moseray noted that, regarding the date for the elections, it is no secret that it will be held on the 24th June, 2023. She said, they are currently preparing for the voter registration with the staff currently on training.
“We are currently recruiting staff that would be assisting the commission to conduct the elections,” she said.
Moseray went on to say that, citizens below the age of 18 have no business in the registration process and that it will be counterproductive for anyone who may want to increase their age.
She said whatever they are going to do will be detailed and sent back to the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA).
“Let’s say you are 16 and you want to vote and you decide to increase your age by two (2) years to 18. If that is done and an opportunity for someone below 18 comes up it will not benefit that individual, because he/she will not turn back the clock,” she said.
The ECSL representative further said that prisoners behind bars will not be allowed to vote, so also those who are insane.
She urged everyone to kindly keep the registration slip they would receive from the registration centre. She advised people that might want to double vote, noting that they will jeopardize the chances of their parties winning the election as their votes would not be counted.
Stephen Owusu Amanfo, a business Development Manager said they have provided a message dissemination app for the election messaging to mobile phones. He said as soon as the message is sent any mobile company network will receive it in ten (10) seconds without paying.
He added that the person receiving the message does not need an internet to receive it, noting that, it is the sender that requires internet connectivity. He went on to say that, when once the message is sent, the recipient will automatically realize that the message was coming from NACEED.
“It is just like when you receive an alert from a Bank, you will realize that it is a particular Bank that sent the message,” he said.
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