By Foday Moriba Conteh
During a Press Conference held at the Head Office of the All People’s Congress (APC) Party on Railway Line in Freetown, on the 16th December, 2022, the Secretary of the Interim Transition Governance Committee, Abdul Kargbo, read out a Press Statement on behalf of the Party.
It was stated that the public would recall that the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL), conducted what it called a ‘Voter Verification/Registration’ for the 2023 multi- tier elections.
According to the APC, the registration exercise, which was conducted from the 3rd September to 4th October 2022, (extended by two days) was meant for citizens who had already registered and voted in previous elections to confirm their biometrics, review their personal information, and make corrections or inclusions where necessary adding how at the same time, it was also to register those who had not been registered previously.
The Party continued that from the 24th to 28th November 2022, the ECSL also purportedly conducted a 5- day Exhibition/Verification exercise of the Provisional List of Voters.
The APC, through its agents deployed across the country, it was stated ,observed those processes in the field and believe that both the Voter Verification/Registration and the subsequent Exhibition/Verification exercises were exceedingly problematic.
“In our opinion, both exercises faced self-induced challenges and were deliberately designed and employed to create an unlevel playing field to disenfranchise a certain section of the electorate at the expense of our party,” it was underscored adding that with regards to the Voter Verification/Registration, it has become evident the data for thousands of citizens who had registered in previous election cycle was either incomplete, incorrect or missing from the register.
Mentioned was that in many of those instances, citizens were not allowed to do the necessary corrections or create a fresh registration but instead, citizens were inappropriately referred to the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) whose mandate does not include voter registration.
The Party said, in respect of ‘First Time Voters’, the ECSL violated its own rules and constitutional provisions on the eligibility/identification criteria for such.
Referencing Part IV of Public Elections Section 24, the APC said it stipulates that citizens are eligible to register either with (a) a birth certificate or a naturalization certificate; (b) a statutory declaration giving particulars of his birth; (c) the testimony of a member of the local Council in the area of his residence; (d) National Identification Number; or (e) any other satisfactory evidence of his entitlement to be registered as voter.
The APC claimed that those provisions were ignored, and in addition, where the ECSL did not allow first time voters to register, they failed to issue rejection forms to these citizens.
It further that additionally, the Exhibition/Verification exercise purportedly concluded on Monday 28th November, exposed what appears to be an electoral strategy to skew the outcome of the June 2023 polls.
“Once again, thousands of people who reported to the designated Exhibition/Verification centres found out that the ECSL retained incomplete and incorrect data,” it was stated adding that thousands of photos were absent along with names, addresses and other details being inaccurate.
The APC said in those cases, correction to inclusion forms were not issued out to affected persons as mandated by law revealing how
ECSL deleted by district, 607 registrants determined to be underage.
It was also mentioned that ECSL also deleted, without reference to districts, two hundred and fifty thousand, one hundred and twenty-three (257,123) registrants (approximately 7% of total registrants), who they stated were duplicate voters.
According to the APC, an ECSL Press Release dated 30th November 2022 stated: “The Commission acknowledges concerns from registered voters relating to the omission of some names from the Provisional List of Voters, photo-less registration details and incomplete data in some centres….The ECSL is closely working with the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) to resolve this issue.”
The APC said the lack of transparency, openness, inclusiveness, of ECSL in its operations has considerably tarnished the integrity of both the voter registration processes and has compromised the Provisional List of Voters.
Moreover, it stated that the numerous challenges the public encountered during the Registration and Verification exercises and the ECSL’s unresponsiveness to stakeholders’ concerns and the failure to address those has substantially undermined public trust in the entire electoral process.
“We believe that these setbacks could result in significant voter apathy,” the APC lamented.
The APC, it was mentioned in the Press Statement, is justifiably concerned that such public mistrust engendered by ECSL and their inability and failure to conduct free, peaceful, smooth and credible Voter Registration and Verification processes represent a slur on, and shameful reversal of the nation’s hard-won democracy.
It added that the performance of ECSL and their persistent disregard for the Law so far holds the potential for very chaotic elections which is a serious threat to the peace and security of the country.
The main opposition party bemoaned that unfortunately, all concerns raised and reported by the APC to the Elections Management Bodies (EMBs) and ECSL regarding the same, have not yielded results.
It said in view of ECSL’s current performance and posture, the APC is constrained to state that ECSL as currently constituted, staffed and manned, lacks the competence and trust to conduct free, peaceful and credible elections.
The statement stated that, therefore, for the attention of the Government of Sierra Leone, EMBs, Civil Society, the public, the Development Partners and the Diplomatic and Consular Corp, the Economic Community of West African States, and the African Union, as required by law the APC hereby demands the immediate disclosure of the disaggregated Voter Registration Data ( Provisional List of Voters, the disaggregated Voter Registration Data (Provisional List of Voters and an Independent Audit of the Voter Registration Process.
Also stated was that it will be recalled that Proportional Representation, is a product of its time and a fall-back position: when there are no constituencies or wards for the purposes of public elections in the country.
It mentioned that such was the rationale and the prevailing circumstances that warranted and justified the amendment introduced in 2001 as now contained in Section 38A of the Constitution.
The APC maintained how the country had then just come through a brutal and destabilizing rebel war foisted on the country which resulted in the destabilization of communities nationwide, apart from the loss of human lives and destruction of property.
It continued that an immediate effect of such a situation was the absence of settled communities and constituencies hence, the justification for the introduction of the Proportional Representation System.
The Statement concluded by claiming that it was then seen as a contingency provision and not intended to be a regular format for public or general elections for Parliament.
