- On December 16, 2022, the Secretary of the Interim Transition Governance Committee, Abdul Kargbo, learn a press launch on behalf of the Party at a press convention held on the All People’s Congress (APC) Party Headquarters on Railway Line in Freetown.
- The public can be reminded that the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) had carried out a course of it known as “Voter Verification/Registration” in preparation for the multi-tiered elections in 2023.
The APC claims that the registration train, which was held from the third September to the 4th October 2022 (prolonged by two days), was supposed for individuals who had already registered and voted in earlier elections to substantiate their biometrics, assessment their private data, and make corrections or additions as wanted, including that it was additionally supposed to register individuals who had not been registered beforehand.
The APC claimed that after seeing these procedures within the discipline with the assistance of its brokers unfold across the nation, it concluded that each the voter verification/registration and the following exhibition/verification operations have been extraordinarily troublesome.
District terminated ECSL after figuring out that 607 registrations have been underage.
Additionally, it was said that ECSL eliminated 257,123 registrations, or about 7% of the full, which they claimed have been duplicate voters. This deletion was carried out with out regard for the districts.
According to the APC, an ECSL Press Release dated thirtieth November 2022 said: “The Commission acknowledges concerns from registered voters relating to the omission of some names from the Provisional List of Voters, photo-less registration details and incomplete data in some centres….The ECSL is closely working with the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) to resolve this issue.”
The APC claimed that ECSL’s lack of openness, transparency, and inclusivity in its operations has significantly undermined the credibility of each the voter registration procedures and the Provisional List of Voters.
Furthermore, it claimed that the quite a few difficulties the general public bumped into in the course of the Registration and Verification workouts, in addition to the ECSL’s lack of responsiveness to stakeholders’ considerations and the failure to handle these, have significantly weakened the general public’s confidence in the whole electoral course of.
We consider that these setbacks may end in important voter apathy,” the APC lamented.
According to the Press Statement, the APC has good purpose to be involved that the general public distrust created by ECSL and their incapability to hold out free, peaceable, simple, and credible voter registration and verification processes symbolize a denigration and shameful reversal of the nation’s hard-won democracy.
It was additionally said that the best way ECSL has operated to this point and their steadfast disrespect for the legislation poses a extreme risk to the peace and safety of the nation by creating the chance for terribly chaotic elections.
The principal opposition get together decried the truth that the APC’s complaints about these points haven’t been addressed by the Elections Management Bodies (EMBs) or the ECSL.
According to the assertion, the APC is compelled to say that the ECSL, as it’s at present constituted, staffed, and manned, lacks the competence and belief to conduct free, peaceable, and credible elections in gentle of its present efficiency and posture.
The APC demanded the fast disclosure of the disaggregated Voter Registration Data (Provisional List of Voters, the disaggregated Voter Registration Data (Provisional List of Voters and an evaluation of the disaggregated Voter Registration Data (Provisional List of Voters and an evaluation of the disaggregated Voter Registration Data (Provisional List of Voters and an evaluation of the disaggregated Voter Registration Data (Provisional List of Voters and an evaluation of the dis
The undeniable fact that Proportional Representation is a byproduct of its period and a fallback possibility in instances the place the nation lacks seats or wards for the sake of holding public elections was additionally talked about.
It said that this was the justification and the scenario on the time that Section 38A of the Constitution, which was amended in 2001, was vital and justifiable.
The APC stated that the nation had lately seen a merciless and unstable insurgent invasion that had left communities throughout the nation in a state of destabilization along with the loss of life and destruction of property.
It went on to say that the absence of settled communities and constituencies was an fast consequence of such a circumstance, which supplied the explanation for the implementation of the Proportional Representation System.
The Statement claimed in its conclusion that it was not meant to be the usual mannequin for public or common elections for Parliament however relatively was thought-about as a contingency provision.
