The Northern Regional headquarters of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) Tally Centres sponsored with funds from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have so far receivedtwo thousand and fifty five voting TEE’s from 3302 established polling stations in the North by NEC, as each TEE’s according to NEC staff is representing a polling station.
It could be recalled that before commencement of voting day, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) divided each district into constituencies, which was sub divided also into Wards, into Centres and finally put into Polling Stations. This was deliberate work by NEC to help voters and their staff by easing the entire electoral process.
Bombali district in particular was divided into nine Constituenciesthat constitute 30 Wards with 290 Centres and 799 Polling Stations. The North in particular consist of 39 Constituencies, 141 Wards with 1,151 polling centres put in 3,302 Polling Stations.
At the Northern Region Headquarters National Electoral Commission Tally Centre in Makeni established few days to the elections day consisted of over 70 computers, which receive Polling Stations voting information and are input into their system.
The Regional Tally Centre Manager who doubles also as Northern province Electoral Commissioner of NEC, Mohamed N’fah-Alie Conteh, described the entire process at the centres at very credible, transparent, professionally handled and important. He said important based on the fact that, upon completion of voting by electorates they were very much mindful of giving copies of what obtains at each polling centre and station to political parties representatives.
Commissioner Mohamed N’fah-Alie Conteh said the idea of establishing Tally centres at district and regional level was to ensure their headquarters Tally centre in Freetown don’t receive much pressure. He said the district Tally Centres upon completion of their district tally, will then send those entries unto the regional Tally Centres which are processed through cross-checking figures, stations numbers among other important information, and finally send them to the National Tally Centres for final tally and conciliations before final results are announced by the Chief Electoral Commissioner.
Commissioner Mohamed N’fah-Alie Conteh went on to state that, “the Northern Region Tally Centre is always open to accredited members of the public including Political Parties, International and Local Observers, the media, Civil Society among others. I want to use this opportunity to inform you that political parties have not been visiting the centres which was very bad,” he noted.
The Coordinator of Independent Radios Network North, Hassan Y. Koroma, described the Tally Centre as very transparent, organised, and equipped. He however prayed that workers and the Institution of NEC, will ensure they come out with the people’s decision noting that the electioneering process was stable with minor problems.
BY Mohamed Kabba
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