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The silence of those who are considered as mouthpieces and voices of the voiceless for the masses in Sierra Leone is beginning to become worrisome. Over the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) provisional registration data of eligible voters for 2023 General Elections, the silence of Kandeh Yumkella and Chericoco on the aforementioned topic has casted a dark shadow on the elections credibility come 2023.
While the registration processes were ongoing, the opposition party All People’s Congress (APC) party alleged to have deployed party agents across the registration centers in the country.
With these agents doing their work well a trained, this will provide a data that would be comparable to the ECSL results when published.
On the ECSL provisional data announced 3 days ago by the chairman of ECSL Mohamed Konneh ahead of the 2023 election, a total 3,268,855 voters data was registered including underage and duplicated data.
257,123 registrants of the process were considered duplicate by the ECSL which Sierra Leoneans had expected questions from but nothing until now. With this among other reasons, many Sierra Leoneans have started to smell the rat as the 2023 General Elections are just around the corner.
To further dig on the rea said issue mentioned earlier below are some of the reasons that caused skepticism over the unquestionable ECSL provisional results released few days ago.
1. The SILENCE of the opposition parties and their leaders on ECSL’s Provisional Voter Register, including the silence of Chericoco and Yumkella on the announced voter statistics, has to be scrutinized. We need their official position on the provisional voters registration data.
2. The APC, for instance, claimed they deployed party agents across all registration centers. They claimed they had their own figures. Now, are they okay with the Provisional Voters Register? They can’t use Fischer’s ruling and injunction on the IGTC as an excuse for remaining SILENT on the credibility issues surrounding the provisional voters register.
3. ECSL announced that they registered a total of 3,525,843 voters and they reported 3,368,855 voters, which means that they excluded 256,988 registered voters on allegations that they’re under age. How did ECSL register under age voters?
4. ECSL, by their own announcement, has already confirmed that they’ve already excluded 256,988 registered voters on suspicion that they’re unqualified to register. How can they exclude registered voters ahead of the exhibition exercise?
5. Did your political leaders, Yumkella and Chericoco, agree that ECSL can delete 256,988 registered voters from the national voters register ahead of exhibition and verification? Has ECSL provided a real breakdown of national registration figures?
6. Many first time voters were unable to register. ECSL also announced that their biometric system was programmed to prevent double and underage registrations. So how and where did underage voters register? Who registered them?
7. Your opposition leaders can’t ask you to go out and verify your voter registration record when the credibility of the provisional register remains questionable. Their first duty is to demand the full release of a complete provisional voters register.
8. Chernoh R. M. Bah of APC and Kandeh Yumkella of NGC have to specifically tell the people of Sierra Leone where they stand on ECSL’s Provisional Voter Registration figures. Are they satisfied with the figures? Or they’ve chosen SILENCE again?
9. Again, no court can stop a political party or it’s leaders from exercising the right to free speech. If they tell you that Fisher passed an injunction to prevent the APC from issuing a statement on the voter registration figures, know that they’ve LIED to you.
10. Yumkella and Chernor R. M. Bah, as Parliamentary leaders, can’t continue to remain silent and tell their supporters that they’re working behind the scenes in the face of the egregious violations of the constitution and the electoral rules. It’s complicity!!
We will continue to highlight the issues until the right thing is done; or until the public know that you have FAILED TO DO THE RIGHT THING ON THEIR BEHALF.
