AYV News, July 5, 2024
Sierra Leone’s Cabinet has approved Chief Minister Dr. David Moinina Sengeh to create a coordination framework to collaborate with parliament, the judiciary and other government entities in implementing the suggestions outlined in the Tripartite Report on Electoral Systems and Management Bodies Review.
In his 14 minutes audio of July 2, 2024, the chief minister spoke on the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee, where he envisioned a constitutional referendum within a year or a year and a half to implement some of the 80 Recommendations in the Report.
He believed that, irrespective of one’s origin and location, the good news to take home from the Tripartite Recommendations is that Sierra Leone becomes the winner.
He called on the people to disregard the misinformation parroted in some quarters that the SLPP has won and the main opposition APC has lost, as according to him, these recommendations will go a long way in preventing rancor and chaos in future elections.
Dr. Sengeh admitted that the process was a very difficult task that involves agreements, disagreements, referencing and divergence of opinions, assuring that a consensus was reached in the end between the main opposition APC and the government of Sierra Leone.
The chief minister acknowledges the fact that both sides of the political divide worked in harmony to come up with 80 Recommendations that is geared towards making future elections free, fair, credible and transparent.
He confirms that international experts played a crucial role in interviewing Key stakeholders including the police, Office of National Security and citizens and stated that information gathered from electoral reports and analysis proved useful in arriving at the 80 recommendations.
According to the chief minister, 14 of the recommendations require constitutional amendments which will strengthen our democracy, 26 requires legal change which must be adopted through parliamentary and local governance statutory enactments, whiles another 14 requires regulation frameworks in institutions such as Office of National Security, the Sierra Leone Police and the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone.
Dr. Sengeh said: “We have done some changes in the regulations of these institutions so that future elections will be fair and credible”.
He revealed that, fifty nine of the recommendations will be implemented before the conduct of a referendum, slated to take place within a year or a year and half.
He stated that the report is in the public domain and people are keeping abreast of the recommendations and went further to urge the public to discountenance the pessimists because Sierra Leone as a nation has won.
The chief minister commended the United Nations and the 14 representatives from the Government and the APC party who went back and forth in protracted meetings to ensure that the tripartite committee succeeds in its endeavor and noted that the next step will be to take the report to Cabinet, whiles resources recommendations to be enacted through statutory provisions.
