July 22, 2021
By Ilyasa Baa
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to postponements of elections in other countries but in Sierra Leone the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has said there is no need for the country to postpone its electoral activities due to the pandemic.
NEC mouthpiece, Albert Massaquoi has informed the public that they are carrying on with the elections as prescribed in the law. He noted that unless parliament changes the law, the 2023 elections will go on as planned.
He said currently by elections are ongoing but disclosed that the Commission is spending more money in the area of COVID mitigation measures which need to be put in place for the safety of voters.
The spokesman noted that the 2020-2024 Strategic Plan has been launched, which has a whole chapter on the Electoral Calendar.
“When COVID-19 started we did an electoral COVID risk assessment, putting in place mitigation plans,” said Albert Massaquoi.
He assured that the Commission is in the driving seat to conduct elections, COVID or no COVID.
Elections are part of life no matter what, they are meant to be conducted, NEC spokesman maintained.
The Commission is currently in constant engagement with relevant partners to look at the arising externalities such as the government policy on local councils to extend one more year. This policy only zooms into the local council and parliamentary or presidential election as the case may be.
The law states that the time limit for local council is four years but the policy is calling for the addition of one year making it five like the parliamentary and presidential elections which are due in 2023.
It could be recalled that the Ebola pandemic was used by the then government to agitate for more time which incidentally led to the extension of the presidential and parliamentary elections to March, 2018.