June 9, 2021
By Ilyasa Baa
The administration of Fourah Bay College (FBC), University of Sierra Leone, has put modalities in place to ensure that the rerun election scheduled for June 11 goes on smoothly without violence as it were on June 2 election which degenerated into a melee, destruction of properties and the arrest of some individuals.
Director of Communications at the University, Dr. Tonya Musa has allayed fears that there will not be a repeat of what happened previously considering the mechanisms they have put in place to ensure that the elections are conducted in a peaceful atmosphere.
He said as a way of crowd control, voters’ identity cards will be issued this time to those that are supposed to partake in the election. He added that anyone caught in the campus without such cards will be arrested by the police.
He disclosed that the administration has held meetings with the stakeholders of the Regent Community and the Sierra Leone Police who have consented to do their best in providing security for the election. He expressed that it was difficult for the police to control the crowd because there was no voters’ identification for the previous election.
Dr. Tonya Musa has called on members of the public to give free space to students on Election Day. He said interference into such election by non-voters is totally uncalled for pleading with members of the public to refrain from such act.
There will be two polling stations instead of one and a station will be for two faculties and the other one for the other two faculties to cast their votes as fresh ballot papers will be printed at the expense of the administration.
It could be recalled that the previous election was abortive because of violence leading to a ballot box being snatched by an unidentified student who reportedly ran with into nearby bush. The ugly incidence led the administration to call for a re-run of the election, a decision widely accepted by the six candidates taking part in the election. Out of the over eight thousand students only about a thousand are legible to vote June 11.
However, Certificate, Diploma, first and final year students are not legible to vote by virtue of the policy recently put in place by the administration.