28 June 2023
THE ELECTION RESOURCE CENTRE CONDEMNS THREATS AGAINST THE NATIONAL ELECTION WATCH (NEW) – SIERRA LEONE AND SUPPORTS THE COALITION’S PLEA FOR THE RELEASE OF ALL POLLING STATION LEVEL RESULTS
The Election Resource Centre Africa (ERC) condemns in the strongest terms the threats made against the National Election Watch (NEW), an independent non-partisan coalition of over 400 national and international civil society and non-governmental organisations established to monitor the transparency and credibility of elections in Sierra Leone.
The threats follow publication by NEW of result projections following the 24 June 2023 Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Authority Election, in which the projections of NEW’s Process and Results Verification for Transparency Methodology unearthed anomalies and inconsistencies in the results announced by the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL).
These threats seek to undermine the rights of not only the organisation to conduct impartial election observation and defend the rights of citizens to vote, but the rights of Sierra Leone citizens to democratic, free and fair elections. The ERC-Africa also supports demands by NEW for the release of all polling station-level results by ECSL. This is important to ensure an open, transparent and independent analysis and verification of the results.
As such the ERC urges all relevant authorities including the ECSL to take all necessary steps to establish conditions that allow election observers to effectively do their work, and to protect them from any form of intimidation.
ABOUT ELECTION RESOURCE CENTRE AFRICA
The Election Resource Centre Africa is a think tank on electoral and democracy issues in Africa. Its mission is to improve the quality of democracy and elections at all tiers in Africa. The organisation seeks to deepen electoral research work in Africa that would inform effective citizen participation as well as strengthen policy engagement towards improvement of the quality of electoral and democratic practices. The ERC envisions an Africa with transparent, credible and inclusive electoral and democratic processes at all tiers of society .
