By: Problyn J. Alpha
As part of its mandate to advocate on issues of public interest in Kono District, the civil society network in Kono District has organized a day dialogue on peacebuilding with stakeholders in the district.
The Dialogue meeting which attracted the presence of the mayor of the Koidu New Sembehun City council, the commander 9th infantry battalion, the LUC Motema including police officers from the Tankoro division, political party representatives, the district security the press among others took place at the old youth Centre in Koidu City.
The purpose of the dialogue meeting was to update political party representatives on the current activities of the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) in the District as the 2023 general elections were drawing closer.
The meeting was to also update the participants on the just concluded registration and the intake of staff and the conduct of the boundaries delimitation exercise including the constituencies and ward boundaries in Kono District.
When updating the audience on the just concluded registration and the arrangement of intake of staff by the commission. The district Electoral Manager Kono, Osman Joe Kamara said immediately after the chairman of the electoral commission for Sierra Leone announced the date for the upcoming elections the commission went into robust action by bringing adult staff on board to help the commission, a process which according to him started with the recruitment of ward coordinators to take care of the wards until after elections.
He noted that after the position of ward coordinators, the commission in Kono recruited at least twenty seven ward coordinators based on several wards in the district. According to him in addition to the twenty–seven ward coordinators recruited, the commissioner has also set aside five other people for any unforeseen issues.
The district electoral manager Kono further maintained that there were two hundred and twenty-eight (228) Centres in Kono District in the 2018 general elections, but the commission has added 23 more centres to the previous centres in the District as stated by law for the commission to increase the number of centres across the country by ten per cent for every electoral cycle, which according to him has increased the number of voter registration centres (VRC) to 251 which the commission is going to operate with during the upcoming elections.
They however thanked residents of Kono for the peaceful registration process which will in no doubt help them to express their franchise on the day of the elections, noting that citizens will only have the right to vote in the upcoming elections when they have themselves registered with the commission.
In his statement, the Mayor of the Koidu New Sembehum city council, Komba Matthew Sam foremost thanked the civil society network for coordinating such a meeting to maintain peace in the district, noting if there is conscientious agreement among stakeholders peace will reign in the District. He further thanked civil society Activists and politicians for maintaining peace in the District, during the August 10th insurrection in the country adding that it is the responsibility of everyone to maintain peace in the District and therefore called on politicians to desist from falsely accusing innocent people because of personal grudge that will provoke violence in the District.
Mani Ngaujah the Project Coordinator of Street Child Sierra Leone who also doubles as the executive secretary General of the civil society network assured the audience that the Civil society network will continue to promote similar dialogue meetings in the District in the bid to uphold peace and stability in the district and therefore urged all and sundry to continue to be peaceful in the district for the sake of development.