As Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora are getting it easy and can afford to pay and get their birth certificates to register for the 2023 general elections in Sierra Leone, Sierra Leoneans at home especially prospective first time voters are still finding it hard to acquire and get their birth certificates as part of the requirements for one to qualify for the voter registration process.
It also seems it’s no longer a matter of technical problems or an issue of challenges, but it’s now convincing that the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) is attempting to either restrain or disenfranchise not only Sierra Leoneans based at home, but first-time voters by any and all means.
Since the inception of the voter registration exercise, many problems have been reported especially in the North-West and Western Area for people who cannot afford to pay for their birth certificate to register. The issue of first-time voters keeps on metamorphosing as the days pass by.
Initially, prospective first-time voters that will turn 18 years either by the end of this year or by June 23, 2023 were rejected by the ECSL machines claiming that the machines were programmed to only register 18 years of age persons with birth certificates. This issue is an incessant outcry by these anxious prospective first-time voters.
What baffles many Sierra Leoneans now is the recent blanket ban by ECSL on yellow-coloured birth certificates. This ban doesn’t even consider the legitimacy or the authenticity of these certificates.
For example, when a first-timer or a Sierra Leonean shows a yellow-coloured birth certificate to any of the registrars, they won’t even glance at it to ascertain its authenticity, even though the yellow coloured birth certificates since time immemorial are considered to be authentic in Sierra Leone.
Mohamed Kenuwui Konneh, Chief Electoral Commissioner for the ECSL
The registration workers will reportedly just say, ‘Our boss told us not to accept yellow coloured birth certificates.’
This blanket ban is a clever attempt to not only disenfranchise many first-time voters without birth certificates but to also violate their rights to participation in the electioneering process.
Frustrated and disappointed rejections were experienced in many parts of Sierra Leone.
Worse yet is that the rejects were not even given RFs (Rejection Forms) as mandated by the Electoral Framework which will give the right to anyone rejected to appeal.
This new development has raised many eyebrows and caused many thoughtful people to cast aspersions of dubious activities by state authorities, others are asking critical questions that need clarification as to why ECSL will pass a blanket ban on the yellow-coloured birth certificate?
Others asked if it could be that the ECSL does not want the prospective first-time voters or those without birth certificates to register and be eligible to vote and be voted for come June 24, 2023? Importantly, why did ECSL programme the registration machines not to even accept prospective first-time voters that will turn 18 come June 23, 2023? What is more heartrending is that, there is even frequent missing of names in the voter machines.
Defenders and supporters of President Maada Bio’s Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) government have said that the problems are widespread and not confined to opposition strongholds alone, while supporters of the opposition protest that the problems are more prevalent in their backyards.
There have been complaints especially in opposition strongholds in the Northwest about registration machines being defective or facing operational glitches, thus either keeping people waiting for hours under rain or the burning sun, or having to return home without registering.
Restricting the terms and requirements of registration is also a noted system of rigging elections these days. These undemocratic methods result in what is known as the criminal disenfranchisement of voters.
These inconsistencies and irregularities by ECSL are posing many problems and making things very difficult for these prospective first-time voters and other potential voters that are yet to have their birth certificates.
Sadly, most of these first-time voters have resorted not to even partake in the ongoing voter registration exercise, a complete violation of their right to vote and to be voted for. This is worrisome and scary; and for transparent, fair, and credible elections, these issues need to be amended.