The Co-chairs of the Cross Party Committee on Electoral Systems and Management Bodies Review, Dr Emmanuel Gaima representing the Government, Dr. Kaifala Marah of the All People’s Congress (APC) Party and Seraphine Wakana from the United Nations representing Development Partners will on Tuesday February 6th 2024, sign the Committee’s agreed Terms of Reference (TOR) and share updates on their work to advance electoral reforms and strengthen democracy in Sierra Leone. The Terms of Reference will guide the Committee on their work within the next six months period.
It could be recalled that members of the National Peace Commission, International Community including Commonwealth and ECOWAS facilitated a dialogue between the Government and APC Party after the disassociation of the APC Party from participating in the governance of the country following the outcome of the keenly contested June 24th 2023 Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Council elections in Sierra Leone.
Both the Government and APC Party signed an eight points Communique late last year which includes a Presidential address by President Julius Maada Bio on national peace and cohesion, the participation of APC elected Members of Parliament, Mayors, Chairmen, their deputies and Councilors in the governance of the country. The third point was the establishment of the Tripartite Committee that will look into all electoral laws that needs reforms.
Just last week, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Green-Field announced the provision of one million five hundred thousand United States dollars (Le1.5M) to support the work of the Committee on Electoral reforms.