The National Election Watch (NEW) is currently observing the pre-election atmosphere and has held stakeholder engagements in the Villages in Constituency 110 in the Western Rural District. In its Pre-Election Assessment Report, they have provided an insight into critical issues to be addressed in advance of the 12th December poll in which it indicated that “there is also growing mistrust of the SLP, as many people interviewed expressed fear and doubt over the institution’s impartiality and independence in discharging their responsibilities.”
According to them, the importation of youths to cause mayhem during the election also featured prominently during meetings with community stakeholders. Citizens and community stakeholders believe that bringing youths into communities where elections are held is responsible for the violence in constituency 110.
“The people stated that individuals who perpetrated violence during the 24th of August 2019 re-run were not resident in the constituency. Citizens complained that after such imported hostilities in their communities, they are left to fix the problem.” NEW went on to state that, residents of Const. 110 cited that even though there was a massive police deployment during the re-run election of the 24th of August 2019, it did not deter the degree of violence on the day, and no one was held responsible.
They further raised concern that those who were arrested for campaign-related violence before the re-run are still in police custody; and the police have not made any meaningful statement about them. “Those who destroyed ballot boxes and other voting materials in the police’s presence and were fully captured by video camera have not been arrested to date.” As the Constituency prepares to go in for a re-run of the cancelled election, NEW says citizens are also concerned about the security of the re-run election. “The police stated that they had held several meetings with the communities to discuss the upcoming election’s security” according to NEW.
“They plan to further have community engagements, especially in areas considered to be hotspots. The police have given assurances that people who are not accredited and not residing in the constituency will not have access to the polling precincts, emphasizing that there will be no “sacred cow.”
Their findings further indicated that, whilst a number of electorates in Constituency 110 were prepared to vote on polling day, a small group of citizens was sceptical whether the election will take place as scheduled by NEC because petition cases are still in court, and they have not seen political parties and NEC coming to talk to them about the re-run.
According to them, there are looming issues that remain unaddressed. The problems identified include community tension, the non-arrest and detention of perpetrators of the 24th of August 2019 election violence, and the continued detention without any information of people who were arrested before the rerun election. All of these have the potential to affect the peaceful conduct of the upcoming re-run election.