The much awaited voter registration process started on Saturday September 3, 2022, without much fanfare. Despite the importance of the upcoming elections, those who are eligible to vote based on assuming the legal age limit; i.e., first time voters, say the information on where to register and for how long is scant, almost nonexistent.
On Saturday, three very upset young people came to this medium to vent their displeasure with not knowing where to register in their area. The young Sierra Leoneans, who say they have been inspired by recent events to take an active role in the governance and politics of Sierra Leone, added that their excitement to vote for a candidate of their choice is being overshadowed by their lack of knowledge about the location, time and length of the voter registration process.
This medium is putting out this warning that the international community should get themselves involved in this process now, before, owing once again to lack of information flow from the government, the people of Sierra Leone will go looking for information from all and sundry.
‘Look, the issues of August 10 and indeed all other issues for which the public has genuine concerns that has to do with failure on the side of leadership have never been addressed by any government. Lack of information from government led to August 10; what would lack of information on the voter registration process that is the forerunner to the elections be like or result to? The government should not be seen as playing politics with national issues. Us getting voter registration information is our constitutional right,’ they noted.
The youth that spoke to this medium on the first day of the voter registration process over the weekend say the government through the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) is purposely limiting information on the voter registration process. By limiting the process to certain enclaves and people, they say government can justify using its highly questionable and contentious, even controversial, midterm census result, which process the key sponsor, World Bank, pulled out of in the eleventh hour.
But while this complaint about the lack of information saturation on the voter registration process is across the political, regional and tribal divides, the ruling party is busy making inroads into getting its house in order while the opposition continues to either be silent or cry foul from the sidelines.
For example, this medium has been reliably informed that heads of government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDA’s) are in their respective villages, etc., promoting the process, while the opposition is still under a fake cloud of suspicion for allegedly wanting to overthrow the government, and the much flaunted prosecutions hanging over their heads regarding the White Paper from the defunct Commissions of Inquiry.
Voters, first timers and the like, say they want to know why information on the most important event on the nation’s calendar of events is scarce, citing that: ‘In the past, people would know where to vote based on zoning; today, registration centres are mobile. Say, after a week here, a centre will be moved elsewhere, which has never happened before in Sierra Leone.
‘Radio and TV stations, newspapers, and other media sources are quiet on information on the voter registration process although the international community has spent and donated hundreds of millions of dollars for the process.
‘The government should be ashamed that although it is not spending a dime, or is spending next to nothing compared to our development partners on the elections process, they have been accused of not spending the money the right way, and on all media houses, not just government friendly media houses.’
A look at all the newspapers the government through the ECSL chose to advertise the voter registration process in, you will see they are what you would call government friendly papers, ‘which leaves people who don’t read such papers in the dark,’ the young people quipped.
The youngsters went on to say: ‘Instead of advertising in every newspaper and media house on the voter registration drive, the ECSL chose government papers and government friendly media sources. Three weeks ago the nation came to a standstill as people hoping to state their displeasure with governance, more especially the audacity of this regime to think that the people are not mature or emotionally stable enough to stage a peaceful protest as guaranteed by the constitution without the need to ask permission from anyone citing that people would turn violent.
‘But instead of focusing on police brutality and provocation, the country was led into almost believing that people wanted to overthrow the democratically elected government of Salone. Back from one of his many UK trips that has also produced nothing, the president can be paraphrased into saying that the only way he can be unseated is via the ballot box. Now that the whole nation including some of his partisans are ready to put this to the test, why are we slowly being left out by the scant information making the rounds on the voter registration process?’
With just three days into the voter registration process, this medium is calling on the international community to see reason to remind and advise the ECSL that their work is nonpartisan; that taking out advertising in every paper, radio and TV station is their job, and that the money slated for that has already been provided by other nations’ taxpayers.
Meanwhile, based on what this paper knows, the voter registration process will run from September 3-October 4, 2022, with September 3-17 being the first phase, while September 20 – October 4 will be the second and final phase.
As it stands, and if the process is allowed to continue as is without the information being properly cascaded or saturated, then hundreds of thousands of Sierra Leoneans stand the chance of being disenfranchised, which consequence this regime should not blame anyone for, save itself.