By: Thaimu Bai Sesay (Intern)
Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) in Collaboration with the Ministry of Information has on 8 Nov. 2022 in a press briefing updated the media on the just concluded exhibition process and their reasons for lunch the online platforms.
To ease and speed up the next process which is confirmation, the Director of Media and Communications Raymond George said they are in the process to develop three platforms which are; Web Portal, Mobile App and SMS. He added that the SMS system is to equally reach out to people who do not have smartphones and internet.
Mr. George disclosed that the primary reason for the exhibition process was to do corrections and verification. He added that it was also to resolve issues of objections due to eligibility during the registration process and do possible inclusions.
ECSL mouthpiece intimated that during the post-exhibition process they acknowledged concerns from registered voters such as objection of names, photos-less registration details and incomplete data in some centres. He maintained that those issues are not strange and are expected to come up. He said that was why the exhibition process was established to resolve those issues.
He disclosed that out of the 531,758 new registrants, 50, 000 were photos-less registrants. He assured me that they are working with NCRA to resolve the issue starting next week. He affirmed that the photos are not missing but identified it to be a technical issue which can be resolved.
He added that they have 75 cases for rejection which 4 had been upheld while 71 were dismissed. He clarified that those dismissed were due to double registration. He said that was unanimously confirmed with the representatives of the various political parties.
He reinforced that the free line system which is the 838 is still open to the general public. He said the line is active and they are always ready to respond to the people.
In conclusion, he assured the general public that the commission is committed to producing credible data and also assured that no registrant will be disenfranchised by any means.
