By Hassan Osman Kargbo
The All People’s Congress Party Representative who is a Co-Chair in the Cross-Party Committee on Electoral System and Management Bodies Review, Dr Kaifala Marah, has assured the citizens that the Cross-Party Committee on Electoral System will surely deliver what the citizens are expected in the country.
He made this disclosure in a press conference organized by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education on Tuesday 6th February 2024, which was held at the New Brookfield Hotel New England in Freetown.
It could be recalled that after the June 24 2023 election, there were irregularities or what many say there were no transparencies in the election which led the APC not to participate in the governance system and the international partners deems it necessary to set up a committee that will look at the June 24 election activities in the country.
According to Dr. Marah, they stated the committee’s work on the 19th of December last year in which the Government of Sierra Leone has 7 representatives and the main opposition APC party also has 7 representatives and Seraphine Wakana is representing the development partners as co-chair in the committee.
He mentioned that the committee is a transparent body and they would make sure that they do things in the best interest of the country and that they would deliver what citizens are expected.
He noted that the agreement or the peace dialogue between the government and the opposition that they called Agreement for National Unity that took place at the Bintumani Freetown Conference Hall has 8 resolution and among the 8 resolution that came up from the government and the main opposition APC Party dialogue, they committee is only responsible for resolution 3.
He continued that the resolution 3 that the committee is responsible for among other things is requiring them to review the 2023 election that the main opposition party questioned its credibility and also for the committee to look at the previous elections in the country and in that process he said the committee would look at the tallying process of result and other electoral activities in the past election and also to look at whether the election body is in line with the international best practice and if the election body is not in line with international best practice what the committee would recommend so that in the future elections in the country would be free, fair, credible and transparent in the country.
He admitted that they could look at the electoral laws like the election acts of 2022 and all other election acts in the country, adding that during their finding they would need the security sector and other bodies in the country to hear from those bodies to look at the 2023 election and other election activities in the country.
He admitted that the committee findings and recommendations, the government had committed to fully implement the recommendation from the committee, adding that the committee aware that there are lot of expectation from the public and they will surely try to do what is expected from them as a committee after their finding.
He promised the public that they would surely try to work things right for the betterment of everyone in the country. He thanked the government and the international partners to work with them to resolve the impasse in the country.
