The entire electioneering process in constituency 001 parliamentary bye-election in Kailahun district have been described as very peaceful, transparent, free and fair by the commission and the security forces.
In an exclusive interview with Awoko Newspaper the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police Eastern Region Alfred Karrow Kamara he said the exercise was peaceful, calm and transparent from start to end with no major complains from either the All People’s Congress (APC) or the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).
The Eastern Region Police Commander said because of the increasing tension among supporters in that part of the country it is their duty as police officers to call on their brother, the Sierra Leone Military Forces to assist them to provide security for the people especially in a situation where there are suspicions of escalating violence.
Based on that he said they invoked MAC-P as a measure to assure voters and the civilian populace in the constituency and district. He noted that the intervention of the military and more police officers contributed greatly to the successful and peaceful conduct of the election, a sign demonstrating that they were on top of the situation and that, the level of tolerance and trust in them from both political parties in the whole process formed part of the successes.
The National Returning Officer and Chief Electoral Commissioner (NEC) Mohamed N’Fa Alie Turay said as a Commission their first priority is to ensure a successful conduct of elections at all level in a free, fair and transparent manner, such that the results will be accepted by all parties.
The Chief Electoral Commissioner (CEC) said his commission is presently trying to ensure results from all elections are announced immediately after the process at district level. He said with the introduction of their data tally technology the issue of delays in reading and announcing of result will soon be a thing of the past because according to him the technology upon receipt of all TEE’s from various polling stations, their IT staff will input them into the system and results will be organized and released within three hours.
Mr. Turay pleaded with political parties to assist in reducing invalid votes by embarking on house-to-house sensitization because according to him, they can do more by voter sensitization rather than dancing on the main streets. He expressed appreciations to the security forces, party stakeholders, the media and civil society for monitoring the process from start on to conclusion.
The SLPP Regional Secretary Rex Bonapha thanked NEC for the process pointing out that the Commission has proven most of them wrong because according to him their perception about NEC from previous elections were bad. He said the results were acceptable to them pointing that the Commission should embark on workshops ahead of every election to reduce on void votes and political violence which keeps growing from ward elections to constituency.
Mr. Bonapha said if constituency elections warranted the police to invoke MAC-P what will be the case of a general election, and what will be the status of the country and the future of its democracy? He pleaded for the establishment of tally centres at district level ahead of 2017/18 elections to reduce the time interval in announcing results.
The APC district chairman Sheku Tejan Koroma thanked the Commission for the conduct of what he described as “credible, clean, free and fair” election and that, they as a party accepted the results. He pledged his party’s commitment to the process and democracy for the development of the country.
Monday July 11, 2016
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