By Albert George Sheriff
Chairman
of the Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) to the Sierra Leone
elections, Olara Otunnu, has promised that “we will be impartial,
objective, professional and respectful throughout this exercise”.
The
former UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for
Children in Armed Conflict told a press conference in Freetown that
the full complement of the COG had arrived in Sierra Leone and
formally begun their mission.
He
said the group comprised nine observers from various Commonwealth
countries, supported by five Commonwealth Secretariat staff and would
be deployed in six different parts of the country including Freetown
west, Freetown east, Bo, Makeni, Kenema and Kono.
The
chairman said the team intended to observe and evaluate the
pre-election, the election itself and post-election processes.
He
said they had a long standing engagement with Sierra Leone dating
back to 1999 when the secretariat was part of negotiations for the
Lome Peace Agreement, to which Commonwealth was a moral guarantor.
Mr.
Otunnu, a one-time Ugandan Foreign Minister, said: “The
Commonwealth observed the 1996 and 2002 general elections, the 2004
Local Government elections and the 2007 Presidential and
Parliamentary elections,” adding that some of their experts were
even part of the July 2008 Local Government elections in Sierra
Leone.
He
said the COG was in the country in response to an invitation by the
National Electoral Commission to observe the 17 November multitier
elections.
He
said the Commonwealth Secretary-General dispatched an Assessment
Mission in September 2012 to consult with political parties,
officials of the NEC and civil society to assess the political
environment and determine whether there was a broad consensus for
their presence in the country.
He
said the COG would carry out its duties in accordance with the
standards expressed in the Declaration of Principles for
International Election Observers and its accompanying Code of
Conduct.
Ambassador
Otunnu said that apart from meeting with officials, managing the
elections and representatives of political parties, they would also
be holding discussions with the NGO community, civil society groups,
the media, youth and other relevant groups.
He
said they would return after the elections and issue an interim
statement commenting on the process based on the reports of their
observers.
“We
will then forward it to the Government of Sierra Leone, the
Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission, the leadership of
political parties and thereafter to all Commonwealth Governments,”
he stated, adding that each of them had been selected to participate
in this mission on the basis of experience and professional
expertise.
He
said the Commonwealth Secretariat seconded a staff member to the
office of the President as Chief of Staff, with his role encompassing
the monitoring and implementation of the “Agenda for Change”.
