November 11, 2021
By: A. Baron Ansu
The National Election Watch, also known as NEW has been caught in a disgraceful act of falsification of information. The incident happened when the Chairperson of NEW, Madam Marcella Samba-Sesay paid a purported assessment visit to Kono for the upcoming bye-elections in the District. In the report on the assessment visit which ended on 29th, October the team led by Madam Marcella Samba-Sesay claimed that the candidates for the various political parties taking part in the upcoming elections expressed their distrust of the National Electoral Commission. On 3rd November, NEW consequently, issued a Press Release on the assessment visit in which it was said that the “candidates and community people expressed their lack of trust in NEC” to run the upcoming bye-elections in Kono.
Hours after the Press Release was issued, the political parties taking part in the upcoming elections met with the National Electoral Commission, and disclaimed the information put out by NEW. The political parties said that they never made any statement to NEW that they distrusted the National Electoral Commission. In a signed Communique issued on 5th November, the political parties described the statement by NEW as “baseless, unfounded, and untrue”.
The ramifications of this act of blatant falsification of information by a team led by Madam Marcella Samba-Sesay are going to be far-reaching. The Chairperson of NEW Madam Marcella Samba-Sesay, also happens to be the Executive Director of Campaign for Good Governance. Although Campaign for Good Governance has had a long history of service in the country, the organization’s credibility is bound to come into focus in the aftermath of this act of falsification of information; with which Madam Marcella Samba-Sesay has been associated. The Executive Director of Campaign for Good Governance has been accused of being the wife of a card-carrying member of APC. Her lack of neutrality and credibility has been constantly trumpeted by both government and other Civil Society organizations.
Early this week, A-Z newspaper ran a story that the key strategy of the APC is to reject the 2023 elections result, for which the party is actively engaged in discrediting all state institutions charged with elections management. It is beginning to emerge that key Civil Society organizations are going to be used in this strategy to discredit NEC, PPRC, and the Police.