By Mabinty M. Kamara
The National Elections Watch (NEW), a coalition of civil society organizations that monitor the electoral processes in Sierra Leone, has called on the government to clearly explain to the public the justification for its proposed Mid-Term Census.
The proclamation of the Mid-Term Census was done by President Julius Maada Bio two weeks ago, on July 21. According to the president in a statement issued in a nationwide broadcast, the census will help his government plan properly, ensure equitable distribution of resources and foster economic and social development. He said it was also meant to update and rectify “significant” gaps in the 2015 National Population and Housing Census.
The gaps in the 2015 Census, according to NEW, needed to be clearly communicated to the citizenry in order to eliminate any iota of doubts.
“Whilst NEW agree with the President on the values a census brings to national development, NEW believes that the reasons for such a process must be transparent and clearly communicated to the nation,” the organization said in a statement obtained by Politico last week.
It added: “New calls government to use the time between now and the launch in December of this exercise to clarify to the citizenry the justification and methodology that will be used this time around so that the people can appreciate the shift, scope and approach. If this process is transparent and open to accommodating technical contributions that add values, its results will leave limited room for questions and contestations, especially those aspects dealing with governance matters.”
The government has committed Le14 billion towards the implementation of the Mid-Term Population and Housing Census. And President Bio, in his address to the nation, noted that the World Bank and United Nations Population Fund had made “significant” funding commitments towards it, noting that other unnamed partners have also demonstrated “strong” interest in supporting the exercise.
Besides its call for justification for the census, NEW also raised concern over the prioritization of the census process at a time when the country is battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Mid-Term national Population Census to be conducted in December 2020 is the first of it kind in Sierra Leone, as the National housing and Population Census have been conducted once every 10 years.
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