By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
After several views, reactions and concerns towards the National Election Watch’s (NEWs) Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT), previously known as Parallel Vote Tabulations, (PVT) methodology used for the 2023 elections, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) says it supports that NEW conducted it properly.
NDI’s statement said NEW used the PRVT methodology to provide systematic information on the conduct of voting and counting and to independently and impartially assess the accuracy of the official results as announced by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL). It stated that the PRVT results projections are based on the official results announced at each of the polling stations by ECSL officials at the close of counting.
It emphasized that the PRVT sample and calculations were made in “strict accordance with widely accepted statistical principles”.
“NEW employed the same PRVT methodology in 2023 as it used, without controversy, for the 2018 presidential election,” it said.
NDI expressed regret that Sierra Leonean citizens who organized themselves to observe their elections under the umbrella coalition of NEW are now subject to “harassment and personal attacks”. The Institute notes that United Nations Special Rapporteurs consider election observers like NEW as human rights defenders who therefore should be afforded all the same protections.
It further stated that the United Nations Special Rapporteurs explicitly urged Member States to “take all necessary steps to establish conditions that allow national and international election observers to effectively do their work, and to protect them from any violence, threats, retaliation… as a consequence of their legitimate exercise of their rights and freedoms.”
NDI recalled that based on the Institute’s global experience and drawing from best practices from other African countries that also adhere to the open election data principles, it agrees with recommendations by the European Union Election Observation Mission, the Carter Center, NEW and others who have called on the ECSL to release polling station level results to the public.
It affirmed that releasing these results would enhance transparency and accountability, which it said is essential for public confidence in the declared outcome. It calls on the leadership and members of the two major political parties – the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) and All Peoples Congress (APC) and other political parties to refrain from actions and declarations that can further polarize Sierra Leonean society, and take concrete steps to safeguard the country’s peace and democracy.
NDI however stated that it provided technical assistance to NEW, a coalition of hundreds of Sierra Leonean organizations founded in 2001, in conducting its PRVT and is fully confident that it was conducted properly.
The Institute rated its PRVT as a well-established methodology to promote accurate election results that has been used repeatedly around the world and across Africa since the 1980s.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (10/07/23)
