Tonkolili District Women’s Leader of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) Haja Mariama Koroma has in an interview with Awoko Newspaper described the ongoing national voters’ registration exercise as peaceful and to some extent violent especially in some of the most remote villages where she alleged age forgery for under age children is on the increase.
She dsclosed that they as staekhlders in the Northeastern district have been teaming up agains t age forgery by parents and other relatives of underages children that have been trying to exploit the electoral commissoin’s eligibility regulatiosn for registrants.
Unlike the first phase, when frequent agruments had erupted among them and some of the perpetrators, there is relatively no sign of age forgery for underage chlding to be registered, hence there is peace and tranquility so for among stakeholders of the district irrespective of the different political parties they represent.
She further cautioned that age forgery for underage children at some voters’ registration centers in the district and anywhere nationwide will eventually affect the children whose ages have been increased for the purpose of making them eligible to be accepted for registration and in a long run will also negatively affect the nation’s development.
“some of these underage children in the next 10 to 15 years will be government employees but if their ages are forged now they will have to attain the retirement age faster than they should, because of the action some of their parents and other relatives who are putting their political parties’ interest above the country,” she explained.