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The Chairman of the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC), Abdulai M. Bangura has noted that the voter Identification (ID) card is the most potent weapon the ordinary citizens would have against the politicians.
The PPRC Boss said this on Monday 29th August, 2022, during a engagement with political parties in the country ahead of the start of the voters registration process.
Mr. Bangura called on the party representatives in the meeting to canvas their members in order for them to not only participate in the process but also create the conducive atmosphere for the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) to do their work effectively.
He said without such identification card, citizens would not have the opportunity to take part in the upcoming elections.
“The voter’s card is very powerful as it would enable you to participate in the governance of the state,” he stated. The PPRC Chair called on the parties to discourage under age and double registrations, which he said the 2012 Election Act and the Bill in Parliament frowned at.
He implored the political parties to talk to their supporters not to attempt to do such illegal acts and also for their people to give ECSL the access to go all over the country and do their work in a very peaceful atmosphere. He applauded the politicians and political parties who have issued out flyers on social media, calling on people to register.
However, he discouraged campaign messages for now, as the hasn’t yet issued out campaign dates. According to the Chairman of the ECSL, Mohamed Konneh that the voter’s registration process will be done in two phases. Phase one will alert on 3rd to 17th September, and the second phase will start on 20th September and end on 4th October 2022. Chairman Konneh said 3,630 registration centres have been slated for the process of which, 1815 will be used for the first phase and the same for the second phase. ECSL has finished the training of Ward Coordinators, with the training of the registration staff. Parties representatives also made their inputs into the meeting, among them is the National chairman of the Poeple’s Movement for Democratic Change, Tony Songa, who railed on the Commission to set deterrent to any political party that will go against the dictate of the registration process. “Let us own up to our responsibilities as political parties,” he said.
According to Independence, all of the major political parties were in attendance, and the meeting ended with the signing of a communique in relation to the registration process.
