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The All Peoples Congress Party has today 16th December, 2022 held a press conference at the Party’s headquarters demanding the disclosure of the disaggregated Voter Registration data and an Independent audit of the registration process and the cancellation of the proportional representation electoral system.
Dr. Richard Conteh, Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, Alfred Peter Conteh and Hon. Abdul Kargbo were among key APC Stakeholders at the press conference.
In their press statement, Hon. Abdul Kargbo, Secretary of the Interim Transition Governance Committee (ITGC) All People’s Congress revealed that the public would recall that the Electoral Commission(ECSL) conducted what it called a “Voter Verification/Registration for the 2023 multi-tier elections.
He added that with regards to the Voter Verification/ Registration, it has become evident that the data for thousands of citizens who had registered in previous election cycle was either incomplete, incorrect or missing from the register. instead citizens were inappropriately referred to the National Civil Registration Authority( NCRA) who’s mandate date does not include voter registration.
He further pointed out that the lack of transparency, openness, inclusiveness, of ECSL in its operations has considerably tarnished the integrity of both the voter registration processes and thus they believe has compromised the Provisional List of Voters.
Moreover, he higlighted that the numerous challenges the public encountered during the Registration and Verification exercises and the ECSL’s unresponsiveness to stakeholders’ concerns and the failure to address these, has substantially undermined public trust in the entire electoral process.They believe that these setbacks could result in significant voter apathy.
He mentioned that APC is justifiably concerned that such public mistrust engendered by ECSL and their inability and failure to conduct free, peaceful, smooth and credible Voter Registration and Verification processes represent a slur on, and shameful reversal of their nation’s hard-won democracy.
Speaking on the Proportional Representation system, he emphasized that “It will be recalled that Proportional Representation, is a product of its time. It is a fall-back position: When there are no constituencies or wards for the purposes of Public elections in the country. This was the rationale and the prevailing circumstances that warranted and justified the amendment introduced in 2001 as now contained in section 38A of the Constitution. The country ahead then just come through a brutal and destabilising rebel war foisted on the country which resulted in the destabilisation of communities nationwide, apart from the loss of human lives and destruction of property. An immediate effect of such a situation was the absence of settled communities and constituencies, Hence, the Justification for the introduction of the Proportional Representation system. It was then as a contingency provision and not intended to be a regular format for Public or general elections for Parliament.”
Abdul Kargbo concluded by cautioning that the performance of ECSL and their persistent disregard for the Law so far holds the potential for very chaotic elections which is a serious threat to the peace and security of the country.
