By Amin Kef (Ranger)
With the theme: “Fostering Peaceful, Credible and Inclusive Elections in Sierra Leone 2022 – 2023”, on the 17th May, 2023, the Chief Electoral Commissioner and Chairman, Mohamed K. Konneh, and the UNDP Resident Representative, Pa Lamin Beyai, co-chaired the Sierra Leone Election Project Board Meeting.
The Sierra Leone Election Project Board is a multi-stakeholders forum of national and international partners that provides general oversight, strategic guidance and direction in the funding, implementing, and monitoring of the election project work plans of the ECSL, Political Parties Regulation Commission, Sierra Leone Police, Human Rights Commission, Youth Commission, the Judiciary, UN Women and Civil Society working on Elections.
In attendance among others were Electoral Commissioners, Zainab Umu Moseray and Albert Samba Kanu, the Head of EU Delegation in Sierra Leone, Ambassador Manuel Muller.
The objective of the meeting was to assess progress made so far in preparation for the June 2023 elections and how to address electoral, political, and technical challenges arising during the implementation process.
In another development, on Wednesday 17 May 2013, the West Africa Democracy Solidarity Network (WADEMOS) paid a courtesy call on the Chief Electoral Commissioner and Chairman.
Representatives of WADEMOS, a non-partisan, independent civil society-led transnational democracy solidarity network, that consists of over 30 Civil Society Organizations in 15 countries in West Africa, including Sierra Leone, are in the country on a pre-elections solidarity mission to Sierra Leone.
The delegation met with the Chief Electoral Commission and Chairman, Mohamed Kenewui Konneh at the ECSL Headquarters in Freetown on pre-elections assessment of the ECSL in preparation for the June 24, 2023, multi-tier polls.
During the engagement, Chairman Konneh used the opportunity to update the delegation on the Commission’s level of preparedness for the June 2023 polls.
The Head of Delegation, Paul Osie Kuffur, from Ghana, registered WADEMOS’ commitment to ensuring that Democracy thrives in the region, which now experiences the reemergence of military interventions in Governance that threatens the democratic gains that have been made in the sub-region.
The Head of Delegation also presented its report on Democracy and Elections from the Nigerian experience.
