As the Boundary Delimitation process continues, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) during the past week engaged major stakeholders of the eleven Political Parties including Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) that had called on the Commission not to continue with the process.
The Chairman and Leader of the SLPP Chief Sumano Karpen told Awoko that they attended the meeting as the Party is faced with a “fait accompli” since Parliament has approved the addition of twenty (20) more seats using the 2016 provisional Census results. ‘
He said during the meeting he made clear the position of the Party that “the census results are flawed but that does not mean we should not participate in the process, but we will attend whenever we are called upon”.
However NEC has continued with the process with the first phase being the engagement with stakeholders and for the Western Area.
According to the Director of External Outreach NEC Albert Massaquoi, he disclosed that the engagement on the Boundary Delimitation Process started on 15th June with President and Cabinet, and on the 23rd June with Members of Parliament. He added that on the 24th June they had the engagement with the Boundary Delimitation Monitoring Committee, on the 29th with the Political Parties Liaison Committee (PPLC). On the 1st July, the Commission engaged the Political Parties while District Electoral Officers were engaged on the 2nd July.
The Director further explained that the objective of the engagement with the stakeholders is to explain the legal provision of the Boundary Limitation as stated in the Constitution and Electoral Commission Act and also the allocation of Constituencies.
Also he said, the stakeholders need to know the methodology used to allocate Constituencies and also the steps used in the allocation process. He said they will need to get input from the stakeholders on the whole process.
Massaquoi maintained that the Commission will also be engaging the Development Partners, Civil Societies, International Communities and the Media after which the second phase which is meeting the other stakeholders in the regions will commence.
He stated further that after engagement with the Political Parties leaders, they were taken on a conducted tour to the Geographic Information Systems which is run by NEC with technical assistance provided by Statistics Sierra Leone.
By Betty Milton
Monday July 04, 2016
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