By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
The Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) has responded to series of allegations made by the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) party on the conduct of the forth-coming multi-tier elections in the country.
The ECSL in its latest statement noted it issued an earlier press statement accepting that the quality of photos for some Voters Cards was poor, but stated that the Final Voters Lists were printed in coloured with enlarged and identifiable photos of the voters so that they could be clearly identified.
The ECSL statement affirmed that voters cannot be disenfranchised due to poor quality photos on voter cards and that 19,612 (nineteen thousand, six hundred and twelve) cards have been reprinted for faceless voters, mismatched candidates and nominators which saw the provision of attestations.
On allegations of flawed census and boundary delimitation, the commission noted that the current voting centres are based on existing centres since 2007 with incremental review for every electoral cycle, noting that only 10% increment from the 2018 polling centres was done across all districts, and was not based on mid-term census.
Reacting to APC claims of ‘flawed voter verification’ the commission said it followed the legal provisions to register qualified voters and prevented unqualified voters from misusing the qualification requirements.
On the main opposition’s accusation that the commissioners are sympathetic to the government, it argued that commissioners have exhibited neutrality and non-partisan stance and that their showing of five fingers symbolizes ‘Hands Off’ and not the interpretation made by the party.
The commission guaranteed the opposition APC that results will be counted at polling stations in the presence of party agents and observers and that the original Result Reconciliation Form (RRF) will be completed by the Presiding Officer (PO) and a copy of the signed form will be given to party agents.
The commission also stated that there is no law mandating it to share registration data with a third party, noting that due to best practice it has remained committed to sharing of the final voter register to political parties but constrained to share personal data including date of birth, telephone numbers and details of parents.
On the demand for Independent auditors to audit the voter register, the ECSL noted that it has never been done and do not intend to do so, countering it could compromise the integrity of the system and the independence of the commission.
The commission has faced series of allegations from the APC with the latter claiming that 90% of voter cards were badly printed and that borrowing ballot boxes from Guinea instead of buying them as loss of integrity, threat to peace, unity and democracy in the electoral process. The party also complained of what it referred to as “flawed census and boundary delimitation and allocation of voting centres with more centres to Southeast regions while suppressing the north.”
The APC recommended that ECSL guarantees the counting of ballot be done by manual tallying instead of electronically and to provide Electoral Data management structure and tallying system in the presence of party agents.
APC had also expressed concerns over the commission’s failure to respond to the party’s request for submission of data and of failing to meet deadline for the submission of voter registration data.
The party also asked ECSL to immediately release disaggregated and comprehensive details of registrants’ personal details including codes, age, address, photos and fingerprints/signature.
They had called for an independent technical auditor to audit the voter register and for the resignation of the Board of Commissioners, to be replaced with an International Election Management Board.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (21/06/23)
