By Alpha Abu
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Information and Civic Education Chernor Bah says the Government of Sierra Leone is well on course to address the concerns raised by the US-based Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) – an agency that provides grants to countries with a potential for economic growth as a result of sound economic policies.
In an interview with Politico, the minister said Vice President Dr.Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh is leading an electoral reform committee that will look at the challenges faced by all the key actors including the general populace in the electioneering process so as to establish an all-encompassing framework that the electoral management bodies can utilise for future engagements.
Bah said officials of the Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion have engaged members of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) and presented their report to President Julius Maada Bio.
“We have even invited the Commonwealth to join in dialogue efforts, and in all of this, we continue to deepen our democracy, advance human rights, and fight corruption’’, the minister said
Bah asserted that all those steps are well-documented and that the MCC letter of July addressed to the Vice President does not constitute their latest desire for the MCC but part of the Sierra Leone government’s long-running engagement with the government of the United States to achieve the compact. He said the government will continue its open-door policies.
The MCC letter to the Vice President had asked that investigations be carried out over the electoral process, and for public dialogue around electoral reform and respect for the constitution, whilst also calling for clear public condemnation of violence against any Sierra Leonean citizen exercising their civil liberties, to other measures identified by the government.
Sierra Leone was on course to secure 44 million dollars of compact grant from the MCC which for now has been put on hold.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (04/09/23)
