Ecsl Accepts Deletion Of Duplicated Registered Voters
BY ABDULAZIZ SAMURA & ALINA O. KALLON
On 27th November, 2022 a post went viral that was shared by the Publisher of the Africanist press an institution based in America, Chernor Bah, “How can ECSL guarantee us credible elections when they’ve admitted deleting over 250,000 registered voters, and now even the exhibited Provisional Voters Register contains thousands of missing biometric details? Why are political parties SILENT?”
The post went further that, “Your MPs want you to talk about their staged drama in Parliament instead of paying attention to the verification exercise. They know many names have been deleted from the Provisional Voters Register and they don’t want a national conversation around it.”
The Director of External Relations at Electoral Commission Sierra Leone (ECSL), Albert Massaquoi, said the Commission made reference to 250,000 registration details that we’re flagged for deduplication, where by the law makes provision that information of such nature especially in database should be cleansed on grounds of being potential duplicates, and in the process, remove the repetitive electoral information.
“There was a possibility that people may have done double or multiple registrations in 2 or more centres. The responsibility lies with the Commission to duplicate (match each data against all the others),” he said.
He also stated that the Commission has no reason to delete e citizens data if not for duplication, however he added that they are working assiduously to address the matter.
The Chairman of National Grand Coalition (NGC) party, Dr. Dennis Bright during a phone interview revealed that they have contacted ECSL for a clear explanation on their action to delete citizens data all in the name of “duplication”. He continued that the Commission doesn’t not have the mandate to delete registered voters, stressing that they as a party are anxiously waiting on ECSL to settle the issue.
The Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) has responded to concerns from registered voters, relating to the omission of some names from the Provisional List of Voters, photo less registration details and incomplete data in some centres.
On Wednesday 30th November,2022 Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone in a press statement stated that: “Pursuant to Section 33 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991 (Act No. 6 of 1991) and Sections 27 and 28 of the Public Elections Act, 2022 (Act No. 17 of 2022); has the mandate to exhibit Provisional List of Voters (PLV), which commenced on the 24th was concluded on 28th November, 2022.
However, some civil society organizations during this exercise, called on the Electoral Commission to include the registrants names and photos that are missing in the commission date base, though ECSL in a release indicated that registrants, including first time voters who visited Exhibition Centres were able to confirm their registration, fill out correction forms if their addresses were wrong or inclusion forms if their details were omitted and object to other registrants on the provisional voter list.