The Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) has responded to series of recent allegations made by the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) and some members of the public.
Some of the responses were made for allegations including bad printing of voter ID cards, dependence of the Commission to the Government and loan of ballot boxes from neighbouring Guinea.
The ECSL acknowledged that most of the ID cards were printed badly but have since put modalities to ameliorate the issue.
“In order to ensure voters would be clearly identified, the Final Voters List was printed in coloured with enlarged and identifiable photos of the voters,” the ECSL said.
They added that the Commission has reprinted 19,612 cards that were faceless and mismatched details.
The ECSL also denied allegations that have been acting from orders from above by citing that they have held several meetings with political parties in the months leading to the elections.
“At the PPLC meetings, the ECSL discussed electoral activities and policy matters with political parties,” ECSL said.
They said in addition to the above, the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Kenewui Konneh has held several “face-to-face meetings with the leadership of the APC”.
“The ECSL has worked with three different executives of the APC -Old Executive, Interim Executive and the current Executive.
“This has created room for information gaps from the current APC Administration,” the Commission said.
The ECSL also said that the loaning of ballot boxes was legal and was in line with the ECOWAS directive of sharing non-sensitive election logistics.
“ECSL has previously loaned election materials from ECOWAS countries.
“In 2012 voting screens from Ghana and in 2018 voting screens from Liberia,” the ECSL said.
The Commission also called on political parties to be responsible in admonishing their supporters to maintain peace and to choose dialogue.
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