The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has provided Sierra Leone with $500,000 financial support for its June 24 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The sub-regional body is also to deploy 95 observers for the polls.
President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, who approved the deployment, observed that the move is in line with provisions of Articles 12 to 14 of the 2001 Regional Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance on assistance to member-states, holding elections.
The ECOWAS Election Observation Mission would be led by a former president of the Commission/ ex-Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office in West Africa and the Sahel, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, with erstwhile ECOWAS Representative in Liberia and Guinea-Bissau, Amb. Ansumana Ceesay, serving as Deputy Head of Mission.
The mission will be assisted by a technical team, headed by ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Amb. Abdel-Fatau Musah.
The deployment is a follow-up to the joint ECOWAS and African Union pre-election fact-finding mission to the West African nation from April 12 to 14 this year.
Fifteen Long-Term Observers (LTOs) had been deployed in the country since yesterday. The team comprises experts in election administration, gender, conflict management, security, legal and constitutional issues, as well as media.
From June 20, the LTOs would be joined by 80 (Short-term Observers (STOs), drawn from the ECOWAS Permanent Representatives’ Committee, member-states’ Foreign Affairs Ministries and electoral management bodies, ECOWAS Council of the Wise, community institutions (Parliament and Court of Justice), civil society organisations, the media and election observers.
Thirteen candidates from 17 registered political parties are vying for the country’s presidency, including the incumbent, President Julius Maada Bio, who is seeking re-election on the platform of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).
The SLPP defeated the then-ruling All People’s Congress (APC) in the last poll in 2018.
Some 135 parliamentary and 493 Local Council seats are also open for contest.
Others seats in the spotlight include Mayor of Freetown to which APC’s Yvonne Aki-Sawyer is current occupant and SLPP’s Gento Mohammed Kamara as contender.
The Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) registered 3,374,258 voters out of an estimated population of 8.7 million.
Voting is to take place in 11,832 polling stations within 3,630 polling centres across the 16 electoral districts nationwide from 7:00a.m. 5:00p.m.
