By Alpha Abu
Less than two weeks to the start of a nationwide voter- registration exercise, the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL), on Wednesday conducted a symbolic launching of the process at the Freetown Brookfields Hotel, ahead of the event proper, which will literally commence on the 3rd September this year.
Senior Government officials, leaders of opposition political parties, diplomats, representatives of international organisations, and civil society activists witnessed the ceremony, where ECSL officials reassuringly demonstrated their readiness to effectively and efficiently carry out the registration of eligible voters across the country.
Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Konneh in his keynote statement, clearly outlined the commission’s level of preparedness in registering all eligible Sierra Leoneans after having mapped 3,630 centres across the country, where people will have their details captured by the registration staff of ECSL.
He said more staff have been recruited by the commission and 2,000 laptop computers procured for the extraction of citizens’ data from the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA). He said in line with the Public Elections Act, each registration centre will be opened for 15 days, with the process to be done in two phases.
“The first phase will run from 3rd to 17th September 2022 and the second phase will run from 20th September to 4th October 2022, with 1,815 centres in each phase, across the country. In other words, we are going to open the centres in phases and each constituency, each ward will have the advantage of having a centre opened,” Konneh said.
Each centre is to be manned by four ECSL workers namely the Registration Officer, Assistant Registration Officer 1 and 2, and Data Entry Operator.
Konneh said the registrant will have to confirm their details extracted from NCRA’s national single register with the help of the registration officer at the centre they present themselves.
He clearly stated that people, who have no data from NCRA, will first have to do the national civil registration before they could be registered by ECSL.
Konneh pointed out that voting is among the most important civic responsibilities of citizens and urged all including first-time intending voters to be mobilised to register so they could participate in the 2023 electoral process.
On the state of safety around the centres, Konneh said: “The commission is working with the security sector to ensure that the registration environment remains peaceful and orderly”.
On the growing concern about the tense political climate, he said: “While the commission is here to conduct election in a peaceful environment, we are equally concerned about the heightened environment of fear, regional and identity suspicion which is not conducive for a free and fair election”.
Chief Minister Jacob Jusu Saffa in his statement reaffirmed the government’s commitment to a transparent and credible electioneering process. Chairman of the event, dramatist and former politician Dr. Julius Spencer spoke of the important role citizens would have to play by way of voting to determine those that will lead the nation.
A number of eye-catching moments during the launch, were presentations by ECSL Regional Commissioners, reciting positive voter -registration messages in some of the country’s major local languages; the screening of video footage of amputee war- victims from different parts of the country, all imploring in the local languages, for people to take part in the process, and also supporters of the two main political parties (SLPP and APC) dressed in their distinctive party colours, standing side by side and even holding hands as they extolled the virtues of political tolerance.
Various local musicians from different parts of the country also performed songs focused on getting oneself registered for the electoral process
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (26/08/22)
