By: Francis F. M. Harding
Under section 31 of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone, a constitutional obligation is placed on ECSL to register eligible citizens of Sierra Leone that are of sound mind and are 18 years of age to take part in public elections or referenda. It is therefore incumbent on ECSL and the government of Sierra Leone to ensure that every eligible Citizen in the country is guaranteed his or her democratic right to participate in the electioneering process. The registration of voters and the conduct of the Public Elections and referenda remains exclusive responsibility of Sierra Leone by the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone as section 31, 32 and 33 of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone stipulate. In a media update the Executive Director of Legal Link, Rashid Dumbuya Esq. at his headquarters at 89 Fort Street Freetown on the 9th September 2022 told the media about the first weekly preliminary report on the monitoring of the voter registration process in Sierra Leone by Christian Lawyers Centre hereinafter referred to as LEGAL LINK has on Saturday 3rd September, 2022 embarked on a rigorous monitoring exercise of ECSL’s voter Registration exercise across the country.
In his presentation Esq. Dumbuya told the media that in all of these elections, ECSL has fairly maintained a high sense of independence in terms of the conduct of voter registration as well as the general elections in the country. He continues that after one week of its monitoring exercise, Legal Link has decided to release its first weekly preliminary report in a bid to showcase best practice and further expose gaps, weaknesses and loopholes in the voter registration process for urgent action and redress by ECSL, Election Management Bodies and the government of Sierra Leone. Lawyer Rashid Dumbuya give his dismay about the notable absence of National Elections Watch (NEW) observers in many centres visited to monitor the voter registration exercise is a cause for concern. Such a situation deprives the public from a civil society’s perspective of the process.
Legal Link Executive Director underscored the veracity of some of these claims or the lack thereof coupled with its mandate to defend the rights of vulnerable groups in Sierra Leone and to further advocate for democratic good governance, respect for human rights, rule of law and accountability within public institutions. He furthered that the report adopted a mixed methodology; qualitative as well as quantitative methodology. “Participants targeted were ECSL coordinators and staff, registrants, party agents, independent observers, security personnel and vulnerable groups.” Legal Link Executive Director noted.
The Legal Link Executive Director stressed that section 25 the National Civil Registration Act 2016 stated verbatim: “Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law relating to data protection, the Director-General shall provide information in relation to births, adoptions, deaths, marriages, divorces or nullities registered under this Act to (b) the National Electoral Commission for the purpose of getting an updated register of voters for the conduct of public elections and referenda;” In giving their findings the Executive Director of Legal Link: level of population turnout for the registration process, he said despite the huge bottlenecks that eclipsed the voter registration process, the population turnout is positively appreciating on a daily basis. The determination and resolve of registrants is mind blowing as some stay in the queue for over 4 hours while some even show up at the voter registration centres as early as 5 am to register. The voter turnout as of the last update given by ECSL is approaching close to 500,000 nation – wide. Under opening up and closing of voter registration centers within the agree time stated by ECSL Esq. Dumbuya said Legal Link observed some delays in the opening up of centres during the first two days of the exercise but as time progresses ECSL staff becoming conversant with the process and that many centers opened on time 7am and some even closed by 7pm.
Availability of ECSL’s registration materials, gadgets and rechargeable batteries for computers. He noted that centers visited there were available materials and gargets provided by ECSL but in few centers in the Northern provinces as well as Western Area, there were complaints of computers as well as rechargeable batteries dying out leading to delays and/ or early closure of the registration exercise. He furthered that there were strengths and successes in the voter registration process, 1,815 registration centres remained open, ECSL maintained receipt slip and record system, ECSL effort by giving regular updates on the status of the voter registration, the move to open up a situation room with a free toll line to receive complaints. Giving the weaknesses and challenges Rashid Dumbuya said the ‘one centre one computer policy’ floated by ECSL created unnecessary delays and inconveniences to the voter registration process, many polling centres with large numbers of stations were not opened by ECSL during this first phase, segmenting the voter registration exercise into phases creates confusion, opens room for double Registration and corruption, the notable absence of National Elections Watch (NEW) observers in many centres visited to monitor the voter registration exercise is a cause for concern. Such a situation deprives the public from a civil society’s perspective of the process, those who do not registered with NCRA to be registered by ECSL staff at the voter registration centres make room for confusion delay, there were far between making room for inconvenience for good number of registrants like the sick, aged, suckling mothers, PWDs etc., bribery and corruption looms large in the voter registration process particularly in securing of spaces in the queues organized for the voter registration exercise in many centres, the delays in the registration process affected livelihoods and even caused employment queries for some people that left their offices to embark on the registration process and failure of ECSL to conduct a pre-test or pilot survey before relying and /or making use of NCRA’s data was problematic to the process and indicates a clear show of hindsight on the part of ECSL.
Some of the recommendations made by Legal Link for urgent attention of the government, ECSL , Election Management Bodies, political parties, Civil Society Organizations, the international partners and other stakeholders in the electioneering process.
- The National Elections Watch (NEW) should endeavor to monitor the voter registration exercise and have stationed monitors within the centres if not all so as to have a third opinion apart from a civil society’s perspective
- ECSL should sever the voter registration exercise from the NCRA registration process and not use its staff to do NCRA work.
- While NCRA is mandated to provide information to ECSL by law, it is important to emphasize that no extant law exists that requires ECSL to compulsorily use the data of NCRA as a basis for the voter registration exercise.
- Also, the purpose for the sharing to ECSL is simple: to update. This presupposes that an original data should have first been generated by ECSL and where there are discrepancies, the data of NCRA would then become relevant for assistance
- The disenfranchisement and exclusion of persons turning 18 on or before June 23rd 2023 from taking part in the voter registration exercise should be speedily addressed by ECSL. Where practicable, a separate registration system should be generated for these categories of first time voters with proper records taken down of all affected persons in the journal book and receipt given as well
- The ‘one centre one computer policy’ floated by ECSL must be abandoned forthwith as we go into the second week of the registration process.
- ECSL must ensure that in the second week and going forward, centres with large numbers of stations and concentrated voter population are opened so that the pressure will be reduced in the second phase
- ECSL must also disallow its staff from registering persons not registered with NCRA at the voter registration centres. Persons not registered with NCRA must first go and register with NCRA before coming for the voter registration process.
- Political party agents must always keep an eye on the records of the journal book and receipt slips to have the actual number of registrants per day in the centres.
- The need for the urgent purchase of computers and other gadgets relevant for the voter registration exercise cannot be over-emphasized. The argument that ECSL lacks resources is untenable and reveals an outright plan to disenfranchise many from the electioneering process
- As a future lesson, ECSL should always endeavour to do a pilot survey or a pre-test before embarking on any exercise and bears and touches on the electioneering process. This is to proactively identify weakness, and challenges before roll out.
In conclusion the Legal Link is of the firm belief that the right to vote and be voted for is a Constitutional right and that every citizen must be given a fair chance to participate in the registration process leading to the general elections in 2023.The above report therefore has been done in good faith to help address the myriad of challenges that eclipse the ongoing voter registration process.
It is hoped that the government, ECSL, election management bodies, political parties, the civil society community, the international community and the wider public will make use of these report and its finding contained therein to address the challenges affecting the registration process.
The monitoring team will however continue its monitoring and issuance of weekly reports capturing improvements as well as challenges right through the voter registration process.
