As people from all walks of life and nook and cranny of Sierra Leone continue to demonstrate their ambition and dogged determination to register in the ongoing voter registration exercise in the country, the systems of the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) are smartly withering the zest of the masses of people who want to register and obtain the voter identification card.
Since Saturday 3 September 2022 the people have been desperately trying to get themselves registered as stipulated in the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone and called for by the ECSL and interest groups in the democratic and political affairs of this country.
However, the people are faced with a couple of deterring factors emanating mainly from the ECSL systems such as the computers or laptops and the NIN machines in use at various registration centres across particularly Freetown, the north, north-west and southeast of the country. A lot of the equipment being used at the registration centres are said to be bugged down with one fault or the other that are making the process painfully delaying. Faulty machines and in some other cases missing data of registrants have continued to throw a spanner in the works of the ECSL and its registration process. As a result, many people who want to get registered are frustrated and discouraged from doing so. Rather, they have to return home `hoping to come again the other as they are unable to go through the process seamlessly.
Some of the frustrated people who have experienced excruciating pain in their feet for standing for hours under the sun and rains trying fruitlessly to register, shared their disappointment and distrust in the ECSL systems with Forum:
Fatmata Jalloh, a pharmacist: I left my house very early in the morning to go the registration centre in my area to register. But it took days before I was able to register. The first day I went there, the ECSL workers at the centre said the computer was giving them problems to carry on fast with the registration process, that it would freeze or go off, which meant all work or registration process must stop till the other day. It was only the second day I was able to register after so many hours in the queue.
Gerald Hope, a student: For me the whole process is going very slow, and according to the ECSL the whole process will take about four weeks or 30 days divided into two phases: phase 1 for two weeks or 15 days and phase 2 for another two weeks or 15 days. But my experience made me feel that many people are going to be left out in this registration exercise. This is because it takes at least 30 minutes to register one person hence at the end of the day, if the process actually starts at 7am prompt – which is hardly the case – a centre could only register 20 people per day. And this would amount to a very minimal numbers of people that will be registered, something like just two million people, leaving out a lot of people who want to register for the upcoming elections.
Abubakarr Sidibe, a teacher: I have sensed that this voter registration exercise is wrought with so many problems, ranging from faulty machines to late work start by the ECSL workers and missing data of people. The process is going very slow. People who want to register would have to waste the whole of the day to do so, because if you go to the registration centre at 6am or 7am you won’t be able to register that day. Due to the large numbers of people who want to register, you have to be at the centre at 3 or 4am to be in the queue of people who may be lucky that day to get registered. And that would cause you to waste the whole day just to register. So if someone has to go to work – public or private – that person would not be chanced to register as they may have serious problems at their workplaces since there is no holiday given for the voter registration exercise. So for me, I think the Electoral Commission should be thinking about extending the time for the people who want to register to do so. If the ECSL decides to stick by the 30-day period slated for the process, many people will be prevented from registering and they would ultimately be disenfranchised in the forthcoming national elections in 2023. And let me add that a day or two might not suffice to cover all those people who would really want to register.
Alim Sesay, a businessman: I was in Makeni few days ago, and I can assure you that people are every day stranded at registration centres patiently trying to register. But every other moment the ECSL workers at the centres would say the computer or laptop they are using are causing the process to delay as the laptops encounter problems frequently. Sometimes the workers would take half of the day trying to fix the computers to work. I want to say that while this faulty registration materials are mainly concentrated at the opposition strongholds such as the North, northwest and Freetown, the same is not the case with the computers and other equipment being used at the ruling party’s stronghold in the south and southeast. I feel this is an orchestrated and deliberate act to deter registration in the North and Freetown in order to prevent people in the north and the capital city from registering massively. Don’t forget that the 2021 census report states that there is more population in the south than in any other part or region of the country. So they would definitely try to ensure that the voter registration figure from this exercise gives numbers that match up with or support the mid-term census figures that Statistics Sierra Leone published recently.
