By Saio Marrah
The Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL), says the voter registration exercise has been successful despite the initial challenges, as the commission announced an extension of the process from Friday 7th to Saturday 8th October 2022.
ECSL in a press statement on Monday 3rd October 2022 said the extension was due to challenges encountered in the first phase of the registration process, acknowledging ‘’initial challenges encountered with setting up of the equipment and development of staff which delayed opening of some centres across the country in the first phase of the registration process’’.
It said the second phase of the registration exercise has been very successful and that it was satisfied with the turnout, and the data collection process.
It however noted that the extended days are only limited to all the 1,815 registration centres of the first phase, from a total of 3,630 centres across the country.
The Leader of the main opposition party in Parliament, Chernor Maju Bah, had earlier called on the ECSL to extend the registration process.
A Lawyer Lansana Dumbuya, in an open letter to ECSL, informed the commission about alleged cases of first-time voters being denied the right to register despite producing the required documents such as birth certificates.
He also accused the commission of intimidating other eligible registrants and even locking them up in Police cells.
He claimed the affected people are his clients and first-time voters, who were denied registration, despite producing the required documents. The affected people he said are residing in Kailahun, Koinadugu, Kambia, Kenema, Bonthe, Portloko and Western Area. He claimed some people have also been detained by the Police.
He said the refusal was a violation of section 26 sub-section 2 of the 2022 Public Election Act, which he said instructs the registration officers to make a record of reasons for refusing an individual to get registered, as well as informing the person for such a decision. He said an affected person should be allowed to appeal to the commission for such refusal.
Politico reached out to the Communication Unit at ECSL, regarding the claims made by the lawyer, to which a promise was made that those issues would be addressed in their Monday 3rd October press statement.
However, the press statement did not capture some of the concerns raised by Dumbuya. The voter registration process started on Saturday 3rd September to Tuesday 4th October this year.
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