By Mabinty M. Kamara
Days after the release of the controversial provisional result of the 2021 Mid-Term Housing and Population Census, the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) has in a letter requested for the provisional population figures per district and the provisional population figures per council/localities for action.
This according to the letter addressed to the Statistician-General of Statistics Sierra Leone on the 2nd of June, 2022 is to help the commission in the review of electoral boundaries.
The provisional results announced on the 31st of May 2022, projected the country to have an estimated population of Seven Million, five hundred and forty-one thousand, six hundred and forty-one (7,541,641), with a total increase of four hundred and forty-nine thousand, five hundred and twenty-eight (449,528) which is just 6 percent more than the seven million and ninety-two thousand, one hundred and thirteen (7,092,113) that was recorded in the 2015 Population and housing census.
The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) has in a press statement dated 2nd June 2022 expressed satisfaction with the provisional results of the headcount, noting that the process was unique given that it is the first digital census conducted in the country.
“Consequently, the SLPP now calls on the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone to proceed with the delimitation of the constituency boundary pursuant to the powers conferred on it by the constitution of Sierra Leone Act NO.6 of 1991,” he said.
Meanwhile, the main opposition party, the All Peoples Congress Party (APC) has in a letter to the Electoral Commissioner condemned the data produced by Statistics Sierra Leone, claiming that the process was flawed and did not follow due processes of the laws of Sierra Leone.
The letter also noted the ‘planned’ introduction of a proportional representation system in the coming 2023 elections for which it states the likelihood of using the census figures as the basis for allocation of electoral districts and other distributional processes.
It, therefore, described the activities as illegal and not in the national interest of the citizens of this country.
“I, therefore, beseech you to use your good offices and good conscience to refrain from being a part of any attempt to undermine democracy through the use of discredited data from a disputed census; as well as the imposition of an electoral system that has already been twice proven to be inappropriate for our country,” it reads.
Sierra Leone’s National Elections Watch (NEW) last week in a press statement called on the government to cancel data generated from the 2021 mid-term census, noting that it was ‘flawed’ and not representative of the country’s population.
The local election observation body noted that the use of such results will have multiple, long-term implications and consequences for political processes and development interventions across the country.
“Considering all these issues surrounding the Mid-Term Population and Housing Census results, NEW calls on the Government to revisit or completely declare the provisional results of the Mid-Term Census null and void and not to use this data for political and developmental purposes,” the statement reads.
The World Bank which funded part of the census cancelled its support days before the process was to commence, citing concerns over Stats SL’s preparedness and logistical capacity. The government instead decided to fund the rest of the census.
Some opposition parties including APC used various media platforms, urging their supporters not to cooperate with the enumerators and not to be counted.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (06/06/22)
