By Saio Marrah
The Carter Center Observer Mission in its post-elections preliminary statement has indicated that there were insufficient ballot papers in some polling stations in Freetown and that they ran out in midafternoon.
The report says some polling stations opened late on Election Day due to lack of materials and that the voting process assessed was “reasonable” or “very good” in 93 percent of polling stations visited.
It however noted that in some polling stations, prospective voters who claimed to have registered there could not find their names on the list.
While closing and counting were assessed positively at 100% of polling stations observed, Carter Center reported that the tabulation process lacked adequate levels of transparency, mentioning instances of broken seals during the tabulation and open ballot boxes in three of the five tally centres visited.
He also pointed out that international standards provide that voter registration should enable the broadest possible pool of voters to participate and that voter lists should be prepared in a transparent manner with voters having easy access to review and correct their registration data as the need arises.
However, the report noted that the main opposition, the All People’s Congress (APC) contested the validity of the voter registry in the court, claiming unreasonable increases in the number of voters in SLPP strongholds and a decrease in APC strongholds.
On issues relating to boundary delimitation, Carter Center noted that according to international standards, constituency boundaries should be drawn in such a way that the principle of equal suffrage is preserved so that every voter has roughly equal voting power.
The report noted that notwithstanding strong concerns raised regarding the census, the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) decided to use the census results and not voter registration data as a basis for identifying how many parliamentary seats each district would be electing.
Thus, it noted that electoral districts which have historically voted by a significant majority for the governing SLPP were allocated eight more seats in the parliament, and districts that have historically supported the opposition APC by significant majorities lost the same number of seats.
“Significantly, the capital district of Freetown (Western Urban), which in previous elections had twenty seats in the parliament, now has only eleven,” he pointed out.
The mission was said to have been in the country since 7th May 2023, deployed 38 observers from 15 countries who visited 119 polling stations across the 16 electoral districts of Sierra Leone to assess the voting and counting processes.
The statement was read to journalists by the team lead, former U.S. Ambassador, Cameron Hume at a press conference in Freetown on Tuesday 27th June.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (30/06/23)
