The discussions were on data capture, data processing, voter registration and electoral boundaries among others. Giving updates on the voter registration exercise, the Executive Secretary of NEC, Mr William Addo Davies said there has been a significant drop in the daily registration of voters since the announcement of the extension of the voter registration exercise, adding that they had deployed 3,470 kits nationwide. He expressed concerns over funding of the entire process. Mr Davies disclosed that a disaster recovery site for the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) is being set up at NEC headquarters which will serve as a mirror of the central server at NCRA through which the servers at the data centres in Wellington will be linked up.

Mr Addo Davies also reported that a working group comprising Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, NEC and Statistics Sierra Leone are working on legal legislative amendments on the Local Government Act 2004, the Province ACT (Cap 60), 2017, the Establishment Order, Constitutional Instrument No. 2 of 2008. The working group agreed to finalize the draft notes on Wednesday and officially submit the reports to the Office of the Attorney General.

President Koroma urged the various stakeholders to enhance effective coordination and ensure deadlines are met. Amidst the funding challenges, the President registered government’s firm commitment to the electoral process and noted that it was evident that the burden falls on the government to support the entire process.