The start of the voter registration exercise today marks the beginning of no doubt a crucial election in Sierra Leone come November 17 this year.
The National Elections Watch (NEW), an accredited election observer organization in the country is however worried and concerned about the registration of voters below the constitutionally stipulated age of 18 and above, a phenomenon, the NEW maintains, which has been the case in previous election registration exercises.
Relaxed in one of the rooms at the NEW Bathurst Street offices, the Spokesperson for the organization, Ngolo Katta said the only way Sierra Leoneans would witness a transparent and reliable voter registration will depend on the honesty and sincerity of political party leaders and their followers “not to institute any criminality in the process.”
He advised young people below age 18, to stay away from the exercise and encouraged political actors “to show honesty and pay due diligence to the entire exercise as a demonstration of their desire for a free, fair and transparent election.”
Ngolo Katta said that his advice comes against the backdrop of tensions and outbreak of incidences of politically related violence which he maintained, “we cannot afford to have children around a process that might cause more trouble in the future.” It is in this regard, Mr. Katta reiterated, “we are encouraging political parties to be sincere and honest to Sierra Leone (because this is about Sierra Leone) and ensure that the right set of people register and vote.”
The NEW Spokesman disclosed that NEW has started observation of the process since the pilot Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) in collaboration with the Independent Radio Network (IRN). He said in each of the four phases of the registration exercise, NEW and IRN would be keenly observing 369 voter registration centers, disclosing that overall NEW would be present in 1, 476 (one thousand, four hundred and seventy-six) of the total 2,998 (two thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight) Voter Registration Centers (VCRs) in the country.
Mr. Katta called for the support of all and sundry of the NEC voter education around the process, pointing out that the key voter education messages about the BVR do not seem have reached the peripheral areas of the country and noted, it appears therefore that many people remain unaware about the whole process.
Ngolo Katta raised a number of other concerns, such as the possibilities of multiple registrations and security of stored data. He however noted that NEW had discussed these issues with NEC and have been given assurances.
Mr. Katta disclosed that NEW is adopting a holistic civil society strategy approach called ‘Civil Society Engagement in Elections and Electoral Processes (CSEEP)’. This strategy has four thematic areas; electoral observation, safety and security, oversight and electoral education which are being led by various civil society organization, sponsored by DFID with technical support from Search for Common Grounds.
He blamed the issue of political violence in the country on political party leaders accusing them of “insincerity and dishonesty” as to how they want to see their party supporters behave. He alleged that the political leaders most times give wrong information to their subjects and sometimes mobilize them for wrong actions, and that these insincerities and dishonesties have caused so many problems over the years in the country.
He recommended that political party leaders should start sanctioning the behaviors of their members otherwise the problems will just escalate.
By Poindexter Sama
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