The Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) has given the main reason for not releasing election results by polling station.

Speaking during a meeting with All Political Parties Association’s (APPA) meeting with the ECSL, the Chief Electoral Commissioner Mohamed Konneh said the law does not mandate them to release result by polling station but rather by district.

“It (Public Elections Act) says that we release the certified summary district result to political parties and that’s what we have done.

“So, the question or the request for us to release disaggregated data is not in the law, and if the Commission needs to consider that that is not mandatory and there is no timeline for us to break that even if we want to do that,” the Chief Electoral Commissioner said.

The main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) has been at loggerheads with the ECSL over the release of results of the 24 June polls. The party has refused to participate in government and governance as a form of protest against the ECSL not adhering to their demand.

The Commission announced the incumbent Julius Maada Bio winner of the Presidential Election after securing nearly 57 percent in the first round thereby avoiding a runoff.

Meanwhile, the Chief Electoral Commissioner praised his office and other political parties at a meeting on Monday afternoon 24 July. He said the Commission worked within the ambit of the law.

“We followed the laws – we follow the regulations, the Public Elections Act (and) the Constitution” Konneh said.

Despite these, there were variations among election observation mission as to whether the elections were credible.

While the regional body ECOWAS said the election was credible, the European Union said the elections “lack transparency”.

Meanwhile, the Carter Centre and local observation mission, National Election Watch (NEW) questioned the results announced by the ECSL.