1 Comment
Lawyer Augustine Sorie-Sengeh Marrah in an open letter to the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) demands the confirmation of the District Compilation of the June 24 general elections results
In the letter he requested as a citizen of the country for the ECSL to confirm whether the commission possesses all sixteen districts’ certified summary results. He said, “I write to you as a citizen of Sierra Leone, a registered voter in the last general elections, and a public interest advocate democracy activist. I request pursuant to section 2(1) of the Right to Access Information Act 2013 confirmation on whether the Electoral Commission Sierra Leone (ECSL) has in its custody and/or possession all sixteen districts’ certified summary results by the respective District Returning Officers pursuant to section 92(1) of the Public Elections Act 2022 for the presidential, parliamentary, and local council elections held on 24th June 2023.”
He said for the commission to provide him with his request for information on whether the results were verified by political party agents.
“If available, may I further request information on whether the said district-certified summary results were verified by counting agents (political parties’ agents) and/or made available to counting agents and observers present at the respective offices of the District Returning Officers pursuant to section 92(2) of the Public Elections Act 2022? If the answer to my foregoing inquiries is in the affirmative, I request that legible hard or electronic copies of the said certified district-level results be dispatched to my address (above) as appropriate” he said.
To garner more attention and validate his actions, Lawyer Augustine Sorie-Sengeh Marrah took to his Twitter handle to publish the open letter addressed to the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) regarding the confirmation of the District Compilation of the June 24 general elections results.
On his Twitter account, he stated that “Invoking the right to information under the Right to Access Information law (2013), I have made a simple request to ECSL to confirm that district compilations of summary results as mandated by law were done by District Returning Officers and that certified and verified district level summary results were made available to political party agents and observers present at the respective districts pre-transmission to regional tallying centers.”
He went on to state that his request is in tandem with upholding “electoral transparency and to help in no small measure to dispel any distrust which hangs over the integrity of the last electoral process.”
In the end, he said that “The ball is in ECSL’s court to show that one of their core mantras, transparency, was observed every step of the way. Sound electoral process is a catalyst of democracy and nation building”.
We are not interested in any data for any reason.