By Mabinty Kamara, Nasratu Kargbo, Saio Marrah and Chernor Alimamy Kamara
Polls have closed in Sierra Leone after more than 3 million registered voters today went to the polls to vote for president, parliament and local councils in much anticipated elections.
13 people were running for the presidency.
Voting was supposed to started at 7:00 am and end at 5:00pm. However, some centres across the country experienced late starts due to late arrival of voting materials and technical issues. The ECSL later extended voting time in those centres to 7:00 pm to compensate for the delay.
Voting in most of the centres where Politico visited started around 7:00 am and ended at 5:00 pm. At the War Wounded Academy in Grafton Western Area Rural District polling centre number 15225, voting started on time, according to security personnel, voters and the polling Station Manager.
The security situation was calm and voting went on until 5: 00pm when it was halted and counting started immediately.
At Mount Carmel School in Grafton, with centre code 15122, voting also started and ended on time.
According to the Polling Centre Manager, Ibrahim Sorie Kamara turnout was “encouraging” and that the security situation was very calm with no major incident that would have disrupted the process.
At Hockey Pitch Wilberforce Barracks where President Julius Maada Bio and family voted, the process started at 7:30 am.
The president and candidate for the Sierra Leone People’s Party called on voters to come out and cast their ballots, despite the challenges of lateness of some polling centres across the country.
However, at polling center code 16137 open space at Leah Street, voting commenced around 8:30 a.m. According to the Polling Center Manager who identified himself as Jalloh, the ECSL did not provide them with tables and they had to rent them from a primary school out of his pocket. He also complained of the space, saying the car park they used to occupy for voting was not allocated to them as the owner requested for 200,000,000 (two hundred million old Leones) so that people could access it for voting.
At St Luke's Primary School Wilberforce Barracks, voting did not start until after 10 a.m. According to the Polling Centre Manager, Mohamed K. Koroma, they did not receive ballot papers on time and that some of the ballot boxes did not have a cover.
Koroma said some voters had voter IDs, but their names were not found in ECSL’s register. He said that those people were not allowed to cast their votes initially, but that they were told to wait aside while their matter was clarified.
At Ronsab Nursery and Preparatory School at Spur Road in Freetown, there were delays as voting started around 10 o’clock in the morning because the ECSL staff were denied access to the school building, where registration was held.
The Polling Centre Manager, Musu H. Momoh, said that they had to use an unfinished building close by and that it took them time to put modalities in place.
She said a particular voter was not found in the agents’ register, but ECSL confirmed having it and so he was allowed to vote.
The National Elections Observer (NEW) in a press update noted late opening of polling centers as a result of incomplete or unavailable sensitive materials. It also observed incidents of missing data of voters where names and details of voters with voter cards or slips were not found in the register among other concerns.
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