ECOWAS Approves $5 Million For Sierra Leone Elections
For its presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24, Sierra Leone has received financial support from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) totaling $500,000.
The sub-regional body will also send 95 observers to the elections.
Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, the president of the ECOWAS Commission, who approved the deployment, said that it is in accordance with the provisions of Articles 12 to 14 of the Regional Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance from 2001 regarding support for member nations in holding elections.
Former ECOWAS Representative in Liberia and Guinea-Bissau, Amb. Ansumana Ceesay, will serve as the mission’s deputy head of mission. Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, a former president of the Commission and former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office in West Africa and the Sahel, will lead the ECOWAS Election Observation Mission.
A technical team led by Amb. Abdel-Fatau Musah of the ECOWAS Commission for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security will support the mission.
The deployment is a follow-up to the joint fact-finding mission that ECOWAS and the African Union conducted in the West African country from April 12 to 14 of this year.
Since yesterday, fifteen Long-Term Observers (LTOs) have been stationed there.
The team includes professionals with expertise in media, security, conflict management, legal and constitutional concerns, and election administration.
80 Short-term Observers (STOs), drawn from the ECOWAS Permanent Representatives’ Committee, the Foreign Affairs Ministries and electoral management bodies of member states, the ECOWAS Council of the Wise, community institutions (Parliament and Court of Justice), civil society organizations, the media, and election observers, would join the LTOs as of June 20.
The incumbent president, Julius Maada Bio, who is running for re-election on the platform of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), is one of thirteen candidates from the country’s 17 registered political parties.
2018’s final election saw the SLPP defeat the All People’s Congress (APC), which had been in power.
Additionally up for election are 493 Local Council seats and 135 parliamentary seats.
APC candidate Yvonne Aki-Sawyer now holds the position of mayor of Freetown, and SLPP candidate Gento Mohammed Kamara is vying for the position.
Out of an estimated 8.7 million people, the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) registered 3,374,258 voters.
11,832 polling places are located in 3,630 polling centers throughout the 16 electoral districts nationally, and voting will take place there from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
