By Henry Kargbo

The Chief Electoral Commissioner of the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) Mohamed Kenewui Konneh has disclosed that 3,374,258 voters registered from September 3rd to 8th October 2022.

He made the disclosure during a news conference held on 24th December 2022 at the ECSL headquarter, Tower Hill Freetown, where he officially released the final voter registration figures.

The ECSL Chairman informed journalists that the commission undertook update of the voter registration process from 3rd September to 8th October 2022.

He added that the exercise culminated in capturing details of eligible citizens who wish to vote in June 24th 2023 multi-tier elections, pointing out that pursuant to the legal framework, ECSL exhibited the Provisional List of Voters (PLV) from 24th to 28th October 2022. He therefore encouraged registered voters to confirm their details, request inclusion of the data if omitted from the PLV and object against persons whose details were on the PLV.

Konneh furthered that during this exercise, issues of unpublished and misplaced of photos, less data were reported, adding that the ECSL took cognizance of the concerns and proceeded to undertake re-extractions and re-transmissions of data from Voter Verification Kits (VVKs) and voters’ Identification Units (VIUs), which addressed issues that were raised during the exhibition.

He added that the ECSL also processed corrections and inclusion cases made during the exhibition exercise, adding that the final registration date therefore shows that, Kailahun, Kenema and Kono recorded a total of 685,761 voters, Bombali, Falaba, Koinadugu and Tonkolili recorded a total of 567,978 voters, Kambia,Karena and PortLoko registered 489,617, Bo, Bonthe, Moyamba and Pujehun District registered a total of 691,116 while Western  Rural and Urban reordered a grand total of 939,786 registered voters.

He said that the ECSL has fulfilled one of its core values of transparency and will provide a copy to all registered political parties.