By Mabinty M. Kamara
As political campaigns for the 2023 general elections kick off in Sierra Leone, the European Union Elections Observation Mission (EU EOM) has assured of a free, fair, and credible observation and report on their findings as they commence work in the country.
Speaking at a maiden press conference of the mission in Freetown on the 23rd of May, Evin Incir, Chief Observer and a member of the EU Parliament said that a team of 100 observers drawn from 26 EU member states including Norway and Canada will be deployed across all sixteen districts of Sierra Leone with about 50 areas to be covered out of which approximately 500 polling stations will be reached according to the team lead.
“We as a mission have the mandate to observe the elections process and, we will conduct our observation in a strictly impartial manner,” she said.
Ms Incir explained that 28 long-term observers will be deployed across the country this week, saying that “they will observe for example the elections preparations, the elections campaign, and activities of electoral stakeholders.”
Closer to Election Day, she said 40 short-term observers will join the team to observe voting, counting, and tabulation of the results. In addition, she said a delegation from the EU parliament and approximately 10 locally recruited short-term observers from the diplomatic mission of the EU.
As part of their activities, she said they will be engaging different stakeholders in the electoral process to ensure a consultative and participatory process.
The mission, she said will be in the country until the end of the electoral process.
“Our aim in Sierra Leone is to support democratic consolidations. However, it is a joint responsibility of all political parties, candidates, civil society organisations, media, and the electoral administration to maintain a peaceful pre-election environment, in which fundamental rights and freedom of all Sierra Leoneans are respected,” she said.
She, therefore, called on all Sierra Leoneans to bring to the attention of the mission concerns and observation of the electoral processes in their communities.
At the end of their mission, she said a final report will be published with recommendations for electoral reforms. In 2018, the mission led by Jean Lambert also a member of the EU parliament brought forward 29 elections out of their observation of the country’s election that year.
Data from the Electoral Commission Sierra Leone, (ECSL) indicates that the voting will be done at three thousand six hundred and thirty polling stations (3630) out of which eleven thousand eight hundred and thirty-two (11832) polling stations will emerge from across the 16 electoral districts of the country.
The ECSL has recently approved the nomination of 13 presidential candidates to contest the June 24 election. One among the 13 is a female.
However, the legality of the candidacy of the main opposition All Peoples Congress Party (APC) was recently questioned in the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone by two of its membersPaul Kamara and Reverend Alimamy Coleson Turay. Officials of the ECSL said they have so far not received any petition against any candidate.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (24/05/23)
