West African elections observers arrive in Freetown

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 26 February 2018

An ECOWAS Mission of fifty-five election observers have arrived in Sierra Leone for the country’s March 7 presidential, parliamentary and local council elections. The ECOWAS Observation Mission is led by Liberia’s former Interim President, Professor Amos Sawyer.

According to a press release from ECOWAS, the regional observers will be deployed across Sierra Leone’s 16 administrative districts for the elections. There are 16 presidential candidates contesting the 2018 elections, including two women, and more than 700 contenders for the 144-seat unicameral parliament.

One hundred and thirty-two of the lawmakers will be elected directly complemented by 12 slots for Paramount Chief Members of Parliament.

The country’s Constitution requires the winning presidential candidate to poll at least 55% of the votes for an outright win, otherwise the two frontrunners will square up in a run-off vote within two weeks after the declaration of the results of the first round.

The ECOWAS Mission, which includes legal, elections, constitutional, gender, civil society and media experts, and secretariat staff of the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) are deployed by the ECOWAS Commission in line with the regional protocol on democracy and good governance, which mandates ECOWAS to support member States holding elections. The Mission is supported by a Technical team from the ECOWAS Commission.

ECOWAS, after contributing to end the 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone has continued to support the consolidation of peace and democracy in the country.

Sierra Leone has remained at the bottom of the Human Development Index with some 70% of its estimated seven million population living below the poverty line, despite being blessed with abundant mineral resources including diamond, bauxite, titanium and gold.

This is the fourth multi-party elections in Sierra Leone since the end of its civil war in 2002, but the first time that authorities in the country would be entirely responsible for the electoral process following the departure of the UN Mission in 2014.

ECONEC conducted a Needs Assessment Mission to Sierra Leone in July 2017 led  Professor Mahmood Yakubu, President of its governing board and Chair of the National Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) Nigeria. This was followed by an advocacy that resulted in the pledge of some logistic support to Sierra Leone by Nigeria.

ECOWAS has also carried out a pre-election fact-finding Mission to Sierra Leone which involved consultations with various stakeholders to ensure peaceful, credible and successful elections for the consolidation of peace and democracy in the country and the region.

Source: Global News Network (Liberia)

4 Comments

  1. This is the only place on earth (APC) to allow Chinese Nationals to wear the APC symbol polo, in the eyes of the whole world pushed them to interfere in our politics. APC can do anything to retain power; no one born of a woman as a foreigner can practice this in China. APC won’t smell power in Sierra Leone, as long as EBK is the life chairman period. They were well educated by the communist party of CHINA. RIP to APC for a long time.

  2. Please magnanimous people in sierra Leone, this election should be peaceful, fair and free. Please remember, fighting is not a solution to this election. Remember the past (sierra Leone was a war zone). By killing each other, fighting each other, we are doing more harm than good to ourselves. Remember during the war our cultures and traditions vanished.

  3. Sierra Leoneans are gentle people. We love our country Sierra Leone. We say no to violence. We are one people.

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