By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay and Mabinty Kamara
The opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party, SLPP, has called on the National Electoral Commission (NEC) not to use the provisional results of the 2015 Population and Housing Census to conduct the much anticipated boundary delimitation exercise.
SLPP wants figures from the 2004 census to be used while something is done about the latest census results which it has rejected, citing irregularities and claiming that the result was of a bias process.
The provisional results were officially launched by President Ernest Bai Koroma last week in Freetown.
“We consider the provisional results as substantially flawed, inaccurate and unreliable,” the SLPP said in a statement the next day.
Census is conducted after every ten years. And its findings are relevant for use in determining a number of development parameters. Notably the National Electoral Commission uses it to conduct boundary delimitation exercises, which is crucial in the conduct of general elections, especially parliamentary ones.
The 2015 census which revealed a 40 percent increase in Sierra Leone’s population, from 5million in 2004 to 7million in 2015, also showed that the north-western region, which is considered a stronghold of the ruling All Peoples Congress, APC, contains 56% of the total population, while the south-eastern region, considered predominantly supports of the opposition, has 44%.
The SLPP suspects that the APC deliberately influenced the figures to tilt the scale in their favor.
The main opposition party said it was marginalized and its concerns raised during the process were ignored by Statistics Sierra Leone, the body which conducted the census. It has demanded that the electoral body abandons the census results altogether and use the existing census data the country had ten years ago.
But the NEC is unlikely to heed to the opposition suggestion.
Albert Massaqoui, Director of Communications at NEC, said while the population data is crucial in setting up the constituency boundaries, there were other criteria that the commission looked at.
“We consider the census data and parliamentary prescription to do the delimitation process, along with several other factors like geographical location and ethnicity,” Massaqoui told Politico.
Meanwhile, Statistics Sierra Leone has dismissed claims that the census process was bias. A spokesman said this is the most inclusive census that they have ever conducted.
Samuel Serry Jnr, Public Relations Officer of the agency, said everyone concerned was involved at all levels.
“We managed to bring most of the stakeholders concerned, including political parties,” he said in an interview. “This is the most participatory census we have ever had.”
SLPP is one of the eleven political parties in Sierra Leone and they are the only party so far to have openly condemned the provisional census report.
Serry said though that they were aware of the party’s concerns and that they were open to the public for explanations with regards the figures.
While the SLPP’s position on the outcome of the census should warrant attention, the seeming division within the party threatens to weigh down its importance. There have been reports that the issuance of the press release rejecting the census results has sparked division within the party’s hierarchy.
Reports indicate that the party’s national Chairman, Chief Sumano Kapen, was unaware of the release and might not have endorsed it. When contacted by Politico Mr referred us to the party’s Acting Secretary General, Alie Badara, who signed the statement.
Mr Kapen would not come clear as to whether he was in support or against the statement.
Rtd Lieutenant Lawrence Leemah, Acting Publicity Secretary of the SLPP, insisted that Chairman Kapen was aware of the release because he presided over a meeting where the decision to issue it out was taken.
Statistics Sierra Leone said it was preparing the final results of the census and officials there said they don’t expect significant changes in the final document when it is released in December.
“We are preparing the final result of the census. It will be out by December and we don’t expect much to change in it by then,” said Serray.
(C) Politico 13/04/16
