Chief Electoral Commissioner, Christiana Thorpe has affirmed that despite donor support to the country’s elections, NEC shall not allow any of their influence.
She was answering to a question from Awoko on Thursday at NEC office during the release of NEC annual report for 2008 whether because of the donor support to the country’s elections they might influence the outcome of the results.
The Chief Electoral Commissioner answered that the country’s elections were largely supported by donors but stressed that despite their support; it was not a yard stick for them to dictate the pace of it.
What she said is that the foreign nationals were only involved in the elections in the areas of technical expertise and elections management which she blamed on the lack of expertise in the country.
She continued that because Sierra Leone was a signatory to most agreements in terms of its electioneering process, international observers will only come to witness how the elections will go and whether the signatories will be abided but not to interfere.
Christiana Thorpe compared Ghana to Sierra Leone where she said in Ghana; because they were capacitated they controlled their elections in terms of management and expertise.
In that case, the NEC Chairperson continued it was why they have recommended that courses on elections be taught at tertiary institutions from certificate to diploma and then at degree levels.
Eastern region NEC commissioner, Sylvanus Torto too commented that it was a wrong perception held by many people that because donors support elections they also influence the results. That he stated was wrong as since he had joined NEC he had not read or noticed anything like donors dictating elections in the country. “We have our integrity at NEC to protect and we shall not allow (ourselves) to be twisted” he said.
By Ishmael Bayoh