By: Aruna Kamara in Bo
The Voter Education and Training Officer of the Electoral Commission Sierra Leone, Anthony Aaiah Senesie has said that they had lain off a registration officer deployed at the St Francis School in Bo due to his impolite behaviour toward the registrants.
Speaking to Classic Radio 99.7FM flagship Program ‘A-M Live’ on Tuesday to give an update about the registration process, Mr. Senesie said that they trained the staff to be polite to the registrants but the staff laid off did the contrary.
He said that “at any time we find out that there is a total disregard for the electoral procedures by the registration officers with impunity, we take disciplinary measures against the staff and that the registration officer in question was not working with the procedures we put in place to ensure that the voter registration process goes unhindered.”
Mr. Senesie pointed out that “when we are training we always have a standby staff to replace any staff that did not follow the electoral procedures and we will not take somebody from the blues to replace staff as we have standby staff or buffer.
He said that during training they conduct customer care service and the registrants are our customers and we tell the staff how to take care of their customers.
Mr. Senesie however said that the registration process is going on well and they are overcoming the challenges they are facing during the registration process.
He continues to encourage the eligible registrants to go out to register.
Speaking to A-Z Newspaper, some of the registrants at the St Francis School in Bo commended ECSL for the action taken against a registration officer who was impolite to them.
Julian King said that ‘’ it is our right to vote and the right can be given to us at the registration time and we do not want people to discourage us to exercise our voting right.’’
The Regional Coordinator of Coalition of Election Observers(CEO) in Bo district, Joseph Blackie said that ‘’ it is good that ECSL has started taking action against some registration officers, adding that they are thoroughly monitoring the registration process, with their staff deployed all over the country, observing the registration process.
He, however, said that they have informed the ECSL staff of some of the challenges at the registration centres including the gadgets becoming faulty and it is good that ECSL is taking prompt action to address them.
Mr Blackie said that they will continue to work with ECSL before during and after the 2023 elections, pointing out that the Coalition of Election Observers is an independent body, compromising civil society organizations across the country.
