By: Mohamed Sahr
Electoral Commission Sierra Leone has officially identified a whopping number of eligible voters nationwide ahead of the multi-tier general elections in a press briefing held at Youyi Building in Freetown on Thursday 2nd February 2023.
Raymond George, Director of Media and Communications said the Commission had completed the voter registration which was held sometimes last year; adding that three million three hundred and seventy four thousand, two hundred and fifty eight (3,374,258) would be eligible to vote in the upcoming multi-tier general election nationwide. “We have got 1,614,123 males and 1,759,529 females. We have also taken note of people living with disabilities and in that category we have 22,385,’’Director George mentioned.
He revealed that the commission had meticulously handled over six hundred and seven (607) underage registrants courtesy of their digital trace mechanism implemented during the registration period. Mr. George furthered that evidences had been forwarded to the Sierra Leone Police for investigation. He urged Sierra Leoneans to make use of their online portal for the exhibition of personal details as it would help ease the process before commencement of the provision of Voter’s Identification Cards. Director George said the Commission would be printing out 3.3 million identification cards of eligible voters.
Mr. George said ECSL had established and rehabilitated all their offices at different district headquarters across the country in order to address certain issues relating to electioneering process and procedures. He stated that three thousand six hundred and thirty (3,630) centres would be opened country wide. Director George said the Proportional Representation (PR) otherwise District Block System would be in favour for Parliamentary and Local Council elections respectively; noting that the presidential election would apply the Two Round System and the Simple Plurality System would define the Mayor or Chairpersons’ election. “11.9% threshold is for the parliamentarian election and 4.5% threshold serves for Local Council election as the case may be,’’ Raymond George disclosed.
Mohamed Turay, Director of Operations said the Commission had clearly classified both Localities and Districts as separate entities. He revealed that there had been twenty two (22) localities and sixteen (16) districts within Sierra Leone, and there had been an allocation of one hundred and thirty two seats (132) to all of the sixteen districts blocks which was approved by parliamentarians in the Parliament.
Mr. Turay stated that section 33 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone makes provision for proxy voting especially for the Hajj Pilgrims who would be absent during the multi-tier general elections.
“The Commission has held a meeting with Ministry of Social Welfare and other stakeholders on behalf of the Hajj Pilgrims to exercise their franchise before leaving the shores of Sierra Leone but we have made a formal request to Parliament in order to look into this,’’ Director Turay said.