West Africa Women Elections Observers (WAWEO) has said in their
preliminary report that the 2012 Sierra Leone general elections was
conducted in a responsible and orderly manner.
Chairperson of WAWEO, Madam Eunice Roberts said that on November 17th
2012, WAWEO observers were deployed to different areas of Sierra Leone
including Bo, Kenema, Freetown (Urban & Rural).
She said that this election has been historic, seeing that it was the
first time that four major elections were undertaken at the same time,
adding that it is too early to give an overall judgement on the
elections process since collations are still on-going.
The Chairperson stated that that judgement will be provided in their final report.
Madam Roberts reiterated that “the people of Sierra Leone, the political
leaders and their parties deserve to be congratulated on their
commitment to democratic values and ethics particularly to free, fair,
peaceful and transparent elections”.
She paid tribute to the women of Sierra Leone who fully participated in
the electoral process as candidates, observers, party agents, polling
station staff and security officers, and those who came in their large
numbers to vote. “I also wish to congratulate them on the setting up of
the women situation room and being on call throughout the voting
process”.
The Chairperson noted that “the general atmosphere before and during the
elections were essentially peaceful with relatively few incidents
recorded. We are however, yet to determine the impact of the ban of
vehicular movement on Election Day on voter turnout”.
She stated that all over the world, organising elections continue to
face challenges. We therefore commend Dr. Christiana A. M. Thorpe, the
Chief Electoral Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Electoral
Commission (NEC) of Sierra Leone and her staff on their overall
performance.
However, she said they did observe some logistical problems on Election
Day in some polling stations. For instance, voting did not start on
time in some stations due to late arrival of elections materials and
inability of voters to locate their stations. There were long queues
particularly at the opening of the polls about voters showed great
patience and endurance during this time.
Madam Roberts revealed that in some places where our observers were
present the marking of ballot papers in privacy and secrecy was not
assured because the voting screens were not properly set up.
In spite of these defects, the conduct of the 2012 elections represents a major step forward for democracy in Sierra Leone.
Our final report of our observations will be disseminated shortly.
Meanwhile we wish the people of Sierra Leone well in their efforts to
build on their achievements and to ensure that this country’s democracy
is full, certain and enduring.
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