The High Commissioner of India in Sierra Leone handed over 21 boxes of permanent ink to the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone to be used in the June 2023 elections.

The handover ceremony took place on Thursday 6 April this year at the ECSL warehouse in Wellington at the eastend of Freetown.

Indian Commissioner Neerat Kumar Saint, during the handover ceremony stated that the indelible ink given by the Indian government is a friendly gesture to Sierra Leone for the upcoming 2023 presidential elections.

Neerat Kumar said that a request for Indelible Ink was received from the National Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone in August-September last year and considering the cordial and strong bilateral relations between India and Sierra Leone, the Indian High Commission. strong recommendations immediately sent the draft request to the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi regarding the request.

He added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also positively accepted the proposal and immediately started the process of purchasing Indelible Ink, noting that the 40,000 unit batch of Indelible Ink arrived in Freetown on March 31, 2023, ready on time for use. In the upcoming elections.

He noted that India had earlier donated permanent ink to Sierra Leone for elections. The India affairs also said that India has always been a time-tested friend of Sierra Leone.

On his part, Chief Electoral Officer of ECSL and National Returning Officer Mohamed Konneh reiterated the humanitarian gesture of the Indian government to ECSL in the form of human capacity building for the IT staff of ECSL who was sent to India for training for about a month. Therefore, they were able to manage the voter registration process without external support for the process.

He also highlighted the cordial relationship that ECSL has with the Government of India, which he said is an ongoing relationship that will grow to the next level.

The Chief Election Commissioner and National Returning Officer noted that the donations made by the Government of India will reduce the burden on the Government and he said that he is very grateful for the addition that they are sending their official as a thank you to the Government of India.