By: Thaimu Bai Sesay
The United States Agency for International Development has provided support of a 1.5 million United States Dollars grant to the International Republican Institute together with the National Democratic Institute to ensure that 2023 locally led elections in Sierra Leone are credible, transparent, free and fair.
David Reimer, United States Ambassador in Sierra Leone affirmed that the support was from the United States Government to strengthen democratic institutions and processes that were inclusive, transparent and responsive to the public. “We believe that credible and transparent elections which reflect the will of the people are crucial to the fulfilment of Sierra Leone’s democratic and development aspirations,” he reiterated. Reimer added that elections should be free, fair and peaceful and all parties should have the political space they needed to operate responsibly.
David Reimer continued that the election activities should support these objectives by strengthening local civil societies through the provision of civic and election education, mitigating issues related to election violence and supporting local civil societies to oversee the election process through observation and management.
Mohamed Konneh, Chief Electoral Commissioner of Sierra Leone expressed that Sierra Leone had been conducting democratic and peaceful elections and that was what he said had motivated the international body to recognize Sierra Leone. The Chief Electoral Commissioner said he would ensure that Sierra Leone upholds that esteemed integrity.
Joseph Jimi Sankaituah, Resident Director for the International Republican Institute in his statement, said that the Election Project was born out of the commitment of the U.S Agency for International Development to support the 2023 elections in Sierra Leone through the consortium for elections and political process strengthening. “The project is a 16 months project that started in December to further support the 2023 election process by focusing on key electoral reform education which is civic and voter education, violence mitigation and promoting nonviolence election,” Jimi elucidated.
IRI Resident Director further explained how the project would be implemented. He said they would have to deploy long-term security observers to monitor and report incidences of violence, improve citizens’ awareness of the policy project, citizens observation group, and capacity building for civil societies to engage institutions. He assured that IRI and NDI had joined with other institutions to ensure a successful election process.
Ahmed Sahid Nasralla, President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists called on development partners to help empower media institutions in their process of providing credible election information to the public. “The media as of now are not in a better position to provide accurate information and education to the public,” he said. SLAJ president emphasized the need to support community radio stations as they played a pivotal role in ensuring participation in the election process. He added that the community radio stations were extremely challenged with professionalism due to ineffective governance and management to a lack of resources.