Since you assumed office few months ago,
what are your operational plans for NEC as we
approach 2023 elections?
When I assumed office in August 2020, the
general perception was that NEC is only active
when it is about elections. Also, I came in at a
time when there was a perception problem on
my appointment. So I needed to rebrand the
institution and re-motivate the staff.
My immediate task was to change the mindset
and perception built around my appointment. I
immediately embarked on courtesy visits to international
partners, to sell out my strategy in order
to restore the image of the institution.
The Bye election in constituency 110 was a test
case in redeeming the image of NEC. It was conducted
in a free, fair and credible atmosphere,
thereby portraying NEC in a positive light.
At the time I came in, NEC was preparing
the 5-year electoral plan, 2020 to 2024 (electoral
cycle). I reviewed the report and provided my
inputs. We have finalized the strategic plan and
about to launch it.
Also there was the need to beef up the institutional
capacity of NEC and re-motivate staff.
Hence, I commenced a process of re-engineering
the operational process of NEC and re-motivate
staff.
In a nut shell, we’ve developed a strategic plan
for 2020-2024 electoral cycle, with particular
focus on strengthening staff and the institution,
strengthening the democratic process and
opening the space for inclusiveness as well as
bringing on board all relevant stakeholders, to
conduct elections in a peaceful and non-violent
environment.
You are reputed for a sound resume, in relation
to your academic and work experience.
How will this impact on NEC operations?
Indeed, I’ve 20 years experience in financial
crime both at national and international level;
Anti Corruption Commission and African Development
Bank respectively. I also took up
Directorate position at the Financial Intelligence
Unit (FIU) before my appointment as NEC chair.
My background has been mainly on integrity
and good governance, which tally with NEC’s
key principles of independence and integrity.
This prepared me to settle in very fast. A major
positive impact is my inter- personal relationship
with other stakeholders; for instance, before
I took over, NEC was struggling to mobilize
resources. However, with my financial intelligence
background at FIU, I quickly fast tracked
contacts at Ministry of Finance to overcome this
major challenge.
I’ve also used my experience at ACC and ADB
to establish the Ethics office at NEC to uphold the
principles of independence and integrity. This
will strengthen our core principles and standards
that will give credence to results at the end of the
day. Added to this, I have standardized the fiscal
discipline within NEC, in terms of operational
assignments.
What is NEC’s working relationships with bilateral
and multilateral Partners, particularly,
in training and support services?
I’m confident that NEC is, today having greater
respect in the international community due
to the professional and credible conduct of 2018
elections. After the 2018 elections, there were
some Bye-elections that negatively impacted the
credibility of NEC, in the case of constituency
110 and the other one in the north.
We have gradually regained our credibility
purely based on our performance. This is
manifested by the recently conducted constituency
110 elections as one of the most successful
elections conducted in post 2018 general elections.
So our relationship is very cordial. We’ve
marketed our strategic plan to our international
partners and they are receptive to our plan.
We also have bilateral discussions with regional
electoral bodies, like Ghana, Nigeria,
through ECONEC, the Mano River Union
(MRU), the Common Wealth Electoral Body,
that have resulted in strong bilateral relations
with our international partners.
What are the guiding principles leading to
credible elections as we approach 2023?
The guiding principles, for me, must start
from us as professionals. First, we have to inculcate
and demonstrate our core principle of independence
to the public. Compliance to the law
and the Public Elections Act is supreme.
There is also the need to open the space for
political parties to have access to NEC for relevant
information.
There is also need for relevant resources
within the time required, as they will affect the
conduct of the elections and the timeline of the
strategic plan.
There is also the need for staff professionalism.
There is also the compelling need for effective
security; if there are security lapses, it will have
negative impacts on the elections process. So we
need maximum collaboration of independence
and professionalism among these key stakehold
ers for affective conduct of the election process,
as we approach 2023 general elections.
Do you interface with political parties,
particularly the main opposition parties like
the APC?
As I mentioned earlier, because of the perception
they had when I was appointed, I called all
the political parties to have audience with them. I
requested for a visit to their political party offices.
Some of them accorded us the opportunity to go
to their offices. I didn’t go to the APC and SLPP
offices because they did not confirm our invitation.
But I had cordial phone discussions with the
leadership of these two political parties.
In addition, as an institution, we have biweekly
political parties’ liaison meetings, where
all the political parties are invited, including
other elections management bodies, where we
discuss issues and agree on policies and regulations.
I’m also a member of the Political Parties
Regulatory Commission PPRC.
So I’ve built a strong working relationship with
the political parties, anchored on a warm and
cordial relationship with officials of the parties,
which have promoted harmony among us.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of
NEC?
Let me start with the independence aspect of
NEC. When it comes to the decision- making
processes on the electoral process, we are independent.
We are not being directed by anybody.
But when it comes to financing operations, we
are not independent. This is the difference.
We also look at the conflicting provisions in
the constitution. NEC has evolved, since after
the war, to transfer political power from a sitting
government to an opposition party successfully.
This goodwill is a strong franchise that NEC has
in the political landscape. In addition, NEC has a
crop of professional staff, ever ready, to conduct
elections.
As a weakness, I’ve mentioned the financing
aspect. There is also the issue of public perception
which abounds in the global environment.
People cast negative perception on the origins
of NEC staff members, due to the names of staff
members. But this again, on the other side, is
strength. If the public view us negatively from
our names, it will strengthen us to perform well
as we did in the recently conducted 110 election,
which was successful, beyond the imagination of
the opposition and even members of the diplomatic
community.
We are now reviewing our legal framework to
give more strength to the institution like the pronouncement
of date of elections, to galvanize our
core principles of independence and integrity.
We are also pursing financial independence, institutional
and capacity building of NEC.
Promoting inclusiveness is a key ingredient
in the electoral process. What are the strategies
at NEC for promoting inclusive participation in
the electoral process?
Part of the recommendations of the 2018
Elections Observation Mission EOM report,
has to do with inclusivity in the political space,
particularly with gender and disabled persons.
Before now, we had a gender unit, embedded in
the human resource department.
We’ve now separated these two functions. A
separate department for gender and disability,
with functional link with the Ministry of Social
Welfare and Gender Affairs. We’ve also opened
a space for the disabled to participate in the
electoral process, particularly voter education,
including women participation in voter education.
We have opened the space and we are
encouraging them to participate.
Could you explain NEC’s 5-year strategic
plan 2020-2024?
The 2020-2024 strategic plan entails 10 pillars.
The first pillar is the institutional staff capacity
and infrastructural development. Since I
resumed duty, we have reviewed institutional
structure, based on the focus of our strategic
theme, which is strengthening the electoral process
for maximum delivery. With institutional
strengthening, Ministry of Finance has been
supportive in the upgrade of staff conditions of
service and the construction of two regional offices
in the South and East, as one already exists
in the North. Also discussions are on-going with
Ministry of Finance for district offices be built
and owned by NEC, so to enable us use distinct
tallying system during elections period, to ease
management and transmission of results.
More so, the establishment of an Electoral
Trust Fund for a complete electoral cycle, by
the Ministry of Finance, rather than relying on
vouchers, will speedily facilitate smooth elections
procedures.
Another major pillar is boundary delimitation
which has a legal requirement that spans
between 5 to 7years maximum.
Voter registration is another strategic pillar.
We have a working relationship with the
National Civil Registration Authority NCRA,
by using their data to do voter registration at
various polling centers or at various wards.
There is also electoral legal reform which is
currently on-going, supported by the European
Union. We have 3 strategic pillars embedded
here. In short these are some of the pillars of the
5year strategic plan. We hope by next month, we
will launch the strategic plan.
What has NEC done with the Elections
Management Mission EOM recommendations?
What NEC did before I came in, after the 2018
elections, was to form a coalition of all relevant
stakeholders to review the recommendations.
Out of these recommendations, 111 out of 115
were adopted.
We then set the task of looking at these recommendations
in totality into 7 categories. We met
yesterday and some of these recommendations
have been captured in our strategic plans and
our annual work plan.
So we are gradually implementing these recommendations
as an institution.
How do you plan to address election conflicts
in Sierra Leone, particularly as we approach
2023 elections?
When I took oath of office, my statement was,
I want to supervise elections on a day when my
kids are in school. In other words, there will
be no fear of violence that will take them from
school. This has been my cardinal driving focus
since I assumed duty.
I’ve also set up conflict prevention working
group, compromising of civil society organizations,
inter religious council and other similar
organizations. We tested it at the 110 Byeelections.
We’ve now conducted, about 7 or 9,
including parliamentary seats successfully.
Whenever we have election activities, these
institutions engage directly with the Political
Parties participating in each election, to know
their concerns, which are brought up to the
relevant authorities, particularly security, for
prompt action. This strategy is expanded across
the country to ensure hitch-free electoral processes.
We need financial support to achieve
required results from this strategy nationwide,
as we approach 2023 elections. I must give credit
to Ministry of Finance since I came into office.
We no longer conduct elections on credit. In
fact, we don’t announce Bye elections date until
the requisite finance is allocated. For 2021, we
have Le150,000,000,000.00 (One Hundred and
Fifty Billion Leones) allocated, with the Elections
Trust Fund ETF aside, to be launched together
with the NEC 5-year strategic plan 2020 -2024
cycle.
2023 Is just few months away? Are you
confident, as chair of NEC, to conduct free,
fair and credible elections for the People of
Sierra Leon?
Yes. I’m very confident to conduct free, fair,
credible and independent elections and the
results will be accepted by every player in the
political landscape and even the international
community.