July 23, 2021
BY MOHAMED M. SESAY
The Institute for Governance Reforms (IGR) survey report which was done on the self-score of the Election Management Bodies (EMB), has tested the integrity indicators of the 2023 elections ranking it at 6.83 which translates to 68.3%.
This in effect means that nationally, the Election Management Bodies have made good progress to ensure that the integrity of the 2023 General elections can be assured.
This disclosure was made by the Executive Director of the Institute for Governance Reforms Andrew Lavalie at a presser held at the IGR office.
He told journalists that Sierra Leone has developed a legal framework which prevents the Election Management Bodies to organize and manage the electoral process from being captured, controlled and manipulated by Government, whilst allowing them to operate in a manner that gains public Confidence.
He added that the electoral integrity for this assessment covered five broad areas including the existence of ethical standards for NEC officials, whether the Election Management Body officials conduct themselves professionally, whether a credible system for cross checking results exists and whether there is a transparent and secure process for preventing, detecting, reporting and handling fraud during elections.
He further stated that Election Management Bodies were rated highest in terms of neutrality and systems in place for cross checking results; systems to handle electoral frauds and malpractices as well as around ethical requirements were lower.
IGR Director Lavalie also continued that the overall preparedness to conduct the 2023 elections in the COVID-19 context stands at 67%, pointing to a minimal effect of the pandemic and a general willingness among the six Election Management Bodies assessed to conduct timely elections.
Below are other key Results and areas for improvement: Sierra Leone is 67% ready to go ahead with the 2023 elections;; experts’ assessment were a little lower (61%) than inter-institutional scores (73%) and self-assessments which represents (70%).Andrew Lavalie furthered that the Participation of women and marginalized groups was ranked lowest (49%) which means, unless there is a deliberate action for an inclusive electoral process, all hopes for greater inclusion of women, youths and persons with disability in elections could not be realized by 2023.
He noted that the EMBs reported low progress (29%) in the realization of women’s 30% quota representation and there are no elections outreach programme in the school curricular.
Lavalie maintained that Women’s low participation in the electoral space has long been a cause for concern, with the numbers of women elected into public office declining over the last three electoral cycles.
From a high of 15% in 2002, he said the numbers have dropped by one Percentage point in each subsequent election– 14% in 2007, 13% in 2012, to the current 12% in 2018. He added that without any deliberate steps taken to safeguard and enhance women’s participation, there is a strong chance that this trend will continue in the next election as well.
He also disclosed that Election Management Bodies self-scoring and experts assessments shows a good progress of (72%) in the readiness of security for the 2023 elections. Although there are regular consultations and collaboration among Election Management Bodies on (88%) on security issues, Andrew Lavalie further noted that the neutrality of security outfit represents (55%) and the absence of a strong conflict prevention mechanism which represents (68%) are the greatest areas of concerns. He continued that NEC has established an election conflict prevention and Mediation network and the work of the outfit was not assessed in this scoring period adding that, the Election Management Bodies together made a strong call for security personnel to show neutrality in providing security to all interest groups during the 2023 elections.
“This report presents the results of a self-assessment conducted by Sierra Leone’s
Elections Management Bodies (EMBs) on the implications of COVID-19 on the
Upcoming general elections. The report also assesses progress on the implementation of some of the recommendations made by International Observer Missions (IOM) of the 2018 election and ask whether EMBs are on track for the upcoming elections”, he said.
Andrew Lavalie also intimated that the Election Management Bodies have been working on the above recommendations, which are largely seen as the gold standard for making the 2023 elections more credible, peaceful, transparent, and participatory. As such, he said the extent in which progress is being made on those recommendations provides an important marker in Sierra Leone’s efforts to further deepen and consolidate democracy. He concluded that Six Election Management Bodies engaged in self and shadow scoring in order to assess the response they have made to these recommendations as well as steps they are taking to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on preparedness to conduct the 2023 elections. He said the scorecard details the state of preparedness of Election Management Bodies for the elections, notes the gaps and provides target recommendations on areas of focus for the next assessment in order to ensure that the 2023 elections turn out well.
In another survey report presented by Dr. Fredline M’Cormack-Hale on Political Parties, COVID-19 and Women’s Political Participation, she disclosed that there findings were echoed by respondents in the survey wherein Respondents were asked aboutwhether the government provided sufficient opportunities for women to lead, with a focuson three main bodies working on the response: NACOVERC, the Presidential team and theMinistry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS). She added that in all of the three, respondents perceived women to be severely under-represented, although MoHS had the greatest level of representation comparatively (28% of respondents said MoHS provided opportunities for women to lead, compared to 19% in NACOVERC and 14% in the Presidential Team). She continued that it is important to note that the contents in the survey report are citizens’ perceptions adding that, NACOVERC and MoHS are the more public facing institutions of the three.
She however noted that the Technical Advisory Group for Emergencies to support the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (STAGE C-19) is less well known publicly, While women’s presence in NaCOVERC and MoHS is indeed low because five of the 12 members of the Technical Advisory Group For Emergencies to support the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (STAGE C-19) are Women, making for 42% female representation.