By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
In order to ensure peaceful, credible, and transparent elections in the country, a group of Civil Society Organization (CSO) experts and media practitioners named Democracy Network (DEMNET) Sierra Leone has called on the two main political parties, the All Peoples Congress (APC) and the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) to be seen mobilizing agents and preaching peace.
The Group also urged the Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC), CSOs, the Office of National Security (ONS) and the Police to take the lead in the peace process.
The CSO Group made this call in a project launch titled “Reduce Electoral Violence through enhanced civic engagement in Sierra Leone’s 2023 Elections” at the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) conference room on the 15th June 2023.
The report assessed threats during the June 24th multi-tier elections in the country, its aftermath like fears of social media misinformation and disinformation even with the Cybercrime law, especially for those who sit outside Sierra Leone and send incendiary messages. It also realized that citizens’ knowledge of the Proportional Representation (PR) system is relatively low even among educated citizens, traditional leaders, and the general citizenry.
It further noted that Sierra Leoneans fear political parties’ acceptance of the election results and are also afraid of more tensions in case of a Run-off.
The Group, therefore, recommended more transnational and bilateral collaboration for transnational crimes and also called for the enforcement of the Cybercrime law and the Independent Media Commission (IMC) regulations for internal misconduct. It also calls for continuous traditional and social media engagements, mostly targeting all citizens to counter propaganda and fake news.
It went on to urge State institutions to operate within the ambits of the law at all times and for the security apparatus not to be seen openly declaring their support for a political party. It also recommended longer-term civic education which it said is also important to raise civic literacy levels and reduce the public’s vulnerability to disinformation and hate speech and call to violence.
The report recommended taking education sessions to citizens in rural and urban communities, before and after the elections to promote peace, national cohesion, and acceptance of election results. It also calls on the expertise of national institutions including the National Council for Civic Education and Democracy (NACCED), the National Commission for Democracy (NCD), the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), and CSOs.
It however stated that the media also have a critical role in cascading information in the local languages and in a way that the layperson can understand. It called for more traditional and social media engagements that mostly target youths, First Time Voters, and market women, to counter propaganda and fake news.
The report further recommended continuous citizen engagements through radio and TV programs before and after the elections to promote peace, acceptance of results, and national cohesion. It pointed out that various election-related situation rooms have been created including the ONS to channel security-related concerns.
The report’s findings on the aforementioned issues explained the influence of political parties, particularly the top two, SLPP and APC which is strong in most parts of the country. Therefore, whatever measures and strategies are to be employed in a bid to eradicate or reduce the levels and incidence of violence in elections, the roles of these political parties must be taken into consideration.
State institutions like the PPRC and the ECSL have also noted the role and influence of the major parties in fomenting election-related violence. In this regard, the report referenced the major talking point in the Revised Code of Conduct for the 2023 elections which is the ban on street rallies and processions.
Democracy Network Sierra Leone started in January 2023 when a group of Civil Society Organizations experts and media practitioners drawn from across the African continent met in Nairobi, Kenya on the theme “Building a Democracy Network (DemNet) to Support Civic Engagement in Election Processes in ten African Countries”.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (16/06/23)
