According to the presidential spokesperson his government would give its fullest support to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) in ensuring that the commission was fully capacitated to conduct the March 7 2018, parliamentary and presidential elections without any delay.
He furthered that as a responsible government they conscious of the fact that NEC was faced with so many challenges, but stressed that the challenges should not served as any strong reason for a change of the elections date.
Abdulai Bayraytay continued by stating that government was not owing the commission a single cent in terms of salary as alleged by some detractors.
Speaking on the alleged financial crisis the National Electoral Commission was faced with, Bayraytay was quick to note that the government had held several meetings with donor partners so as to help secure the much needed funds for the upcoming general elections.
He urged officials of the commission to prepare well for the conduct of the next general elections by allowing the people of this country to exercise their democratic and constitutional rights.
In another development, the national chairperson of the National Elections Watch (NEW), Marcella Samba Sesay questioned whether the March 7 2018, general election should be postponed or not.
She stated that it is unconstitutional for anyone to temper with the date set for the country’s next general elections, adding that it saddened for the government to start catering for funding, when the general election was just around the corner.
She stressed that government should not advance any excuse, but assist the National Electoral Commission to secure the much needed technical and financial supports to the process.
Speaking on whether there were missing or lost data from the national electoral register, Marcella said as far as his institution was concern , there were no missing or lost data from the national electoral register.
She assured all and sundry that her organization would continue to do all it could in ensuring that the election processes were fully monitored.
In his contribution, the head of the institute of governance reform, Andrew Lavalie, expressed dissatisfaction over the African Young Voices media empire for providing the platform to the public to undertake such discussion, as to whether elections should be held or not.
“We do not want the AYV to join other media institutions to campaign for more time,” he stressed.
Andrew informed his audience that the issue of missing or lost data from the national electoral commission was a figment an imagination by the some local media outlets.
The mouthpiece of the Sierra Leone People’s Party, Lahai Laurence Lemma in his submission stated that missing or lost data was not any reason for any postponement of elections in Sierra Leone.
He called on officials of the national electoral commission to do all they could to conduct elections on the March 7th 2018.
Many Sierra Leoneans this press has interviewed, expressed their legitimate concerns as to whether the government of Sierra Leone will be able to provide the much needed funds for the National Electoral Commission for the conduct of March 7th, 2018 general elections.
