The Chief Electoral Commissioner and Presiding Officer of the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (EC-SL), Mohamed Kenewui Konneh, has said himself and none of his staff at the EC-SL will heed to the call of the All People’s Congress (APC) Party to resign from their positions.
Mr. Konneh at the EC-SL meeting with Elections Observer Missions at the Bintumani hotel yesterday said: “I just want to inform the public that the Chief Electoral Commissioner and the Commissioners of EC-SL will not resign, and we will conduct this election. As a matter of fact, elections have started today.”
He described as false, the APC press release of yesterday, which stated that the early voting for intending pilgrims is not manned by security.
The EC-SL chief used the opportunity to call on political parties and their leaders to continue with their campaigns until the stipulated end period.
In his addressed to the nation yesterday, Dr. Samura Matthew Wilson Kamara, Presidential Candidate for the APC Party said: “The APC demands that Mr. Mohamed Konneh and all electoral commissioners resign forthwith, to be replaced by an independent internationally accredited team of electoral commissioners, who will conduct fresh electoral processes”.
The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) has in a press statement said: “The controvertible statement by the APC Presidential Candidate, Dr. Samura Kamara at the press conference is nothing more than a compendium of unsubstantiated claims, conjectures, blatant inaccuracies and preposterous allegations by a candidate who is apprehensive of an embarrassing defeat at the forthcoming polls.”
The SLPP described the demand by the APC Presidential Candidate for the resignation of the Chief Electoral Commissioner and other Electoral Commissioners as “an outrageous attempt to use the Board of Electoral Commissioners as scapegoats for the ill-preparedness of the APC for the 24th June 2023 multi-tier elections”.
On the conduct of early voting for presidential election 2023 yesterday, the EC-SL said in exercise of the powers vested on it by Section 33 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone 1991 (Act No. 6 of 1991), and pursuant to Sections 7, 42 and 171 of the Public Elections Act 2022 (Act No. 17 of 2022) and The Public Elections (Early Voting) Regulations, 2023 (No.3 of 2023); the EC-SL conducted early voting for the 2023 Haji Pilgrims who will be traveling to attend Pilgrimage before the polling day.
Acting Director of Operations at EC-SL, William Addo Davies said: “Voting started at 7am in all polling centres (EC-SL District Offices) national wide and that there was presence of the security personnel in all polling centres in the various districts.
“The election was being observed by Political Party Agents, Local and international elections observers and the media. Voting ended at 5pm yesterday and counting of ballots for Early Voting will be done at the last polling stations of designated polling centres on Saturday 24th June, 2023 at the close of polls as published in the EC-SL on Early Voting for Presidential Election on 13th June, 2023”.
