Leading observers of Sierra Leone’s June general elections have refused to accept result that announced Julius Maada Bio as the re-elected President of Sierra Leone.
This is because the elections on Saturday June 24 were believed to be marred with a number of irregularities and allegations of rigging, ballot stuffing, party agents refusal to tabulation centres, etc.
A preliminary statement by European Union Electoral Observation Mission, Chief Observer, Evin Incir, states: “critical stages of the elections were generally lacking transparency.”
The US embassy also questions the integrity and trust of Sierra Leone’s presidential results announced by chief electoral commissioner.
A reputable international election observer, Carter Center, has backed NEW’s position that June 24 elections lack transparency.
“The Carter is concerned that the ECSL’s results do not correspond with NEW’s data,” a statement by the observer mission reads.
Carter, which has been monitoring elections in Sierra Leone and in Africa as a whole, has told ECSL to publish results by polling stations across the country, a request the chief electoral commissioner, Mohamed Konneh and his team, have still not yet met despite being notified since Tuesday 27 June.
“Publishing detailed polling station results is critical to ensuring that the final results announced by ECSL genuinely reflect the will of the people as expressed on election day,’’ Carter statement on June 28 reads in part.
While Sierra Leone’s electoral commission, ECSL, announced a 1% over mark on the percentage that will enable a presidential winner, the observers said none of the candidates had got past that percentage, the country’s 55 percent, hence a run-off would have been announced by ECSL.
According to NEW’s results of polling stations in Sierra Leone, Samura Kamara of All People’s Congress (APC) should receive a total of 49.2 per cent.
While the incumbent Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) should receive an overall of 53.1 percent. It means that both candidates did not get or meet the threshold of 55 per cent and so a second round of vote was to be declared by ECSL. But ECSL’s result doesn’t match NEW’s results.
The Chief Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone, Mr Konneh, said Bio pulled 56.6 percent. Whereas Samura, stagnantly, got 41.2 percent.
NEW’s Independent and Non-Partisan Assessment of Presidential Election results statement, which disputes ECSL’s presidential result, was released on Tuesday 27 June.
National Election Watch (NEW) is a coalition of local and international organizations in Sierra Leone.
It prides itself with a common objective of supporting credible and peaceful elections in Sierra Leone.