Sierra Leone’s electoral commission is broke!

Sierra Leone’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) is out of pocket, Politico can authoritatively reveal. Consequently it has failed to conduct a by-election for Ward 178 in Port Loko whose councilor died before the November election results were announced. Nominations for that election had been planned for 10 – 12 March and the parties were only informed yesterday in a Political Parties Liaison Committee (PPLC) meeting. In that meeting, chaired by the NEC Commissioner, North, Mohamed Nfa Conteh the date for the by-election was announced for 4 May due to “lack of funds”, after they had all supplied names of their candidates. According to a lawyer contacted by Politico, under the laws the commission should have first gone to parliament to seek permission for an extension before shifting the date or before the three months expired. NEC sources also say that the by-election conducted in Constituency 92 in February was conducted, in part, at the expense of the salaries of some staff members because there was no money for the commission to do so. NEC has also not received its first quarterly subvention for 2013, an official at the finance ministry who prefers anonymity has confirmed to Politico. Conteh also told the meeting that the mandates of Village Heads in 103 villages, which have been identified and supplied to the Ministry of Local Government, would expire on 23 April. This has prompted concern that if funds are not allocated those elections will also be postponed. Speaking to Politico, Commissioner Conteh admitted that the Port Loko by-election had been postponed to 4 May. He denied that it constituted a breach of the law, but admitted that the “enlargement”, or postponement, was done without parliament’s say-so. The Executive Director of the Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law, Ibrahim Tommy, wondered thus: “If NEC has run out of funds to conduct bye-elections less than four months after general elections, it only leaves one wondering what would have happened if there was a run-off”. He added that “it is critical for all democratic institutions, including NEC, are provided sufficient resources to fulfill their statutory obligations at all times.”