By: Ilyasa Baa
Registration of under age kids and multiple registration of voters in the Northwest and Northeast regions which is reported to have been master minded by stakeholders belonging to the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party has been largely criticized leaving room for suspicion as staff of the Election Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) have been advised to do the needful.
The Bombali District Organizing Secretary of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s (SLPP), Ahmed Koroma has made a clarion call on stakeholders to desist from helping under age kids to get registered in the ongoing voters registration process. He said the registration of under age kids is a political foul play the opposition is using to rig the June 24th elections.
“We are raising the red flag now for the International Community and other observer missions to take note”, Koroma said.
He called on the people in the district, especially those of voting age to leave everything behind to register to vote. He said their party agents are taking notes and updating the party with cogent information about the registration process.
“We are going to take note on the amount of time delayed and will recommend for more time to compensate for the time lost”, the SLPP Bombali District Chairman, Alhaji Mohamed Saiffa informed this medium.
He said there should be zero tolerance on multiple registrations as well as the registration of kids who are supposed to be busy with schooling.
His counterpart in the APC, the District Chairman of the APC, Abdul Kamara also toed this line calling for compensation of time lost during the entire registration process.
ECSL Chairman, Mohamed Konneh had called on members of the public to allow the voters list to be clean and credible for the conduct of the elections.
He emphasized that the Commission deemed it fit to increase the number of registration centers all over the country amounting to a total of 3630 centers which will graduate into polling centers on Election Day.
The issue of mechanical fault on the machines has been laid to rest with the Commission having over one hundred laptops as reserve with two thousand laptops being procured by the Commission.
However, the issue of duplication or multiple registrations, according to ECSL, will be detected at the end of the first phase and legal action taken against those found to have registered more than once.
