AYV News May 16, 2023

The Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (EC-SL) has informed AYV that only two political parties completed Nominations for all positions in the June 2023 elections.

Updating citizens on just completed nominations process, ongoing petitions and forthcoming political parties’ campaigns, Director of External Relations at EC-SL, Albert Massaquoi said it is only the All People’s Congress (APC) and the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) that completely filled in candidates in all sector for the June elections.

Albert said the Proportional Representation (P.R) System requests that for every allocated seat, political parties must submit double names, this is because under the P.R System, there is no provision for bye-election.

He said Freetown has 16 seats for Members of Parliament (MPs), meaning, each political party should submit Thirty-Two (32) names to the EC-SL.

Local Council according to Albert, has Forty (40) seats in Freetown and that each political party must submit Eight (80) names, of which, there should be at least a woman in any 3 names submitted.

For some political parties, Albert said, it was difficult for them to meet these criterium and the law says political parties must submit a completed list to the EC-SL.

“It is only the SLPP and the APC that fully completed the process all through and filled in all the required candidatures.

“For local councils, we have Four Hundred and Ninety-Three (493) Councillor seats. The SLPP and APC filled in for all the seats, times 2.

“For Mayors and Chairpersons, we have Twenty-Two (22) localities which the two parties also filled in candidates completely and of cause did the same for the presidential seats.

“Most of the other political parties attempted to fill in at most 35 to 50 percent, some preferred filling completely in some districts where they believe to have their strongholds but failed to do so in other districts.” Albert said.

The EC-SL Director of External Relations went on to inform that there are lots of independent candidates running for various seats in the coming elections, especially for mayor, chairperson, MP and local council seats.

For local council and MP seats, Albert said the petition window has already closed, adding that the law says objections are only valid during the nomination process and also until an hour after the process has completed. He said after that hour elapses, petitions and objections are closed for that election.

He said: “For presidential seat, the law says after the nominations, we should gazette and within 7 days of that gazette petitions and objections are allowed through the Supreme Court. After those 7 days, the EC-SL will not accommodate anymore petitions or objections for presidential seat.

“Nominations were completed on 9th May, 2023 and gazette was done on 10th May, so from the 10th to 17th May, petitions and objections are allowed through the Supreme Court. Albert confirmed.”

He also confirmed that campaigns for the June 2023 elections will start on 22nd May and end on 22nd June.

In similar development, the EC-SL has issues Online Accreditation Guidelines for the media political parties and other elections observer for the June elections.

The EC-SL said: “The guide is to ensure that political parties, candidates, observers and media institutions who wish to witness the conduct of electoral processes of the Commission are given a form of identity (accreditation card) for which they must apply and be accredited through an easy fashion of electronic means with internet connectivity.

“During the conduct of electoral processes, there is a need for various eye-witnesses (observers) representing credible institutions and independent groups to watch and note happenings before, during and after electoral activities and report on the process based on information they gathered.

“Electoral observation has become an integral part of the democratic and electoral processes to enhance the transparent, credible and accountable conduct of elections, and to assess the level of acceptability of the election results.

“Accredited observers may assess the various stages of the electoral process from the registration of voters, nomination of candidates, polling, counting of ballots and announcement of results”.

The EC-SL’s On-Line Accreditation first component to interact with is the login interface where applicants can create their institution’s account profile.

The second component is the Dashboard area where applicants can find Observers List Button and Apply button. Observers List Button allows applicants to create observer(s) record by clicking on ‘add new observer’.

It also permits edit or delete of existing records. Apply button allows applicant’s position all observers’ records created in batches by clicking on Add New Batch to place applicant’s observers to their respective areas they wish to assign them and Click on the submit button.

The Administration components of the portal determines application content and approves or disapproves an application and upon receiving a submitted application, the Commission has the right to approve or reject the application base content submitted.

When approved, institution will be contacted to collect their accreditation cards at the appropriate EC-SL office. Thus, an email notification will be sent to an applicant’s inbox to alert them of their application status.