As voters in Sierra Leone warm up to cast their ballot in the multi-tier general elections on June 24, the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) has announced that 4,779 candidates will be contesting in the presidential, parliamentary, and local council elections.
According to the commission, 3,374,258 total registered voters across 16 Districts are expected to take part in the elections.
“The ballot for the conduct of June 24, 2023, Presidential and Parliamentary elections together with Results and Reconciliation Forms (RRF), were received on Monday, June 19, 2023, delivered by a special cargo jet at the Lungi International Airport. This consignment has been delivered to the 16 electoral districts in readiness for the conduct of the elections,” the EC chairman Mohamed Kenewui Konneh confirmed at a press briefing.
Also, Tactile Ballot Guides (TBG) – a folder into which ballot paper can be inserted – to aid eligible voters who are blind or visually impaired to vote were also received on the same day.
The various political parties have been provided with electronic copies of the final voters register, including the photo, name and centres of the registrants.
However, there are some variations in the voters register provided the political parties and those that will be available at the voting centres.
“The reason we did this was to prevent what we learnt during the voter registration where people were photocopying voter registers because they have the details, ID numbers of the registrants. People created a lot of voter ID cards to the extent we even arrested a politician and a fake printer of the ID cards,” Mohamed Kenewui Konneh explained.
Meanwhile, early voting for pilgrims on Hajj was held on June 15, 2023, at all 16 district Electoral Commission offices across the country.
By: Julius Kofi Satsi
