By: Mohamed Sahr
In accordance with the prevailing educational demand and a guide to electoral information among young people through the effective use of the internet, Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) has launched an up-to-date social media application named ‘’Sense Bod App’’ which catalogues elections and political parties’ manifestos on Tuesday 30th May 2023 at Tunde Cole Building, Fourah Bay College in Freetown.
Andrew Lavalie, Executive Director of the Institute for Governance Reform said the basis of the application aims at making the elections meaningful in the lives of young people as well as political parties having ethical leadership across the country regardless of tribal and regional lines.
Reminiscing the reason behind the publication of the Biometer, he said it was viewed to understand how transformative the promises made by the Bio-led administration especially pointing at youth employment, enactment of critical laws and women empowerment among others. He urged young people to change the narratives of Sierra Leone as well as work together in changing the minimum wage rate of Sierra Leoneans.
‘’Out of five hundred and thirty-six promises in the Biometer Assessment, forty of them were not accessed at all, but we access four hundred and ninety-six of the promises,’’ Director Lavalie said.
Alieu Gilbert Fullah, Data Manager of the Institute for Governance Reform mentioned that the formation of the application was rooted in the survey made informing the wider gap of knowledge among Sierra Leoneans when dealing with the upcoming multi-tier elections and the change of electoral systems of which 80% of the people little or know nothing about the type of system that would be used.
He revealed that the application serves as a huge opportunity for Sierra Leoneans in order to have information about the country’s elections, electoral systems, political party manifestos and citizen manifestoes in general. He said the application would officially be available at the Google Play store especially for Android users and the App Store for iPhone users as well. Fullah noted that away from the internet challenges, there is available information that would be accessed offline; adding that there are lots of room for improvement which they would work on going forward.
He assured that Sierra Leoneans would not only enjoy the relevance of the application at this moment but they would yearn to know the important role it would play even in subsequent elections. Fullah furthered that the application is well-secured and difficult to hack.
‘’Most of the information is generated from the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone and other credit institutions that are responsible for elections in the country,’’ IGR Data Manager reaffirmed.
IGR Data Manager said the application also provides information about elections’ talking points particularly how to cast a vote, the number of polling stations in the country and names of districts. He continued the application and explains details about the Proportional Representative as the prominent electoral system that would be applicable in the June 24 General Elections mainly for parliamentary and councillorship elections.