Citizens Cry Foul

By Edwina Sia Janga

In the ongoing distribution of the ECSL’s Voters I.D. Card, several concerns have been raised by many citizens across the country over the anomalies discovered by the electorate, which included faceless cards, blurred pictures, missing names, as well as the quality of the cards.

During engagement with people in various centres of distribution, many complained that the ID cards given to them had their names and other details, but had no pictures. Others maintained that they were told that their names were not on the list and should report on Monday, and some were given telephone numbers of officials of ECSL to contact in respect of their missing names. The general complaints from citizens was that the pictures on those who were able to get their ID Cards with complete details, including pictures, was that majority of the pictures were blurred, and it makes identification very difficult. Others complained that in some cases, wrong names were given on their cards, where a female name is given for a male etc.

This situation has raised huge concern among citizens that they may be disenfranchised on election day. Some political analysts say that it is the duty of the ECSL to ensure that the ID Card distributed to citizens capture all their details, including their respective pictures. They stressed that the essence of the exercise is to give the polling agents at the various centres the opportunity to identify the voters as they visit their centres, so as to ensure that the right person is voting and not another, thereby giving the voter the exclusive right to cast his or her vote for their preferred choice of candidate. They furthered that as things stand now, many will be disenfranchised and will not be able to vote, as those with cards without pictures, will not be able to vote.

According to opposition party supporters, this situation will adversely affect their voters, and they are describing the entire scenario as an attempt at rigging the June 24^th Elections in favor of the ruling party. Questions are being asked about the huge amount of money paid for the printing of the ID Cards, and who the contractor is, also, did the contractor produce a sample of the type of ID Card that are going to produce? Why did the cards take so long to reach Sierra Leone? Did ECSL examine the ID Cards when they arrived in the country to ascertain that they were in line with the provisions of the contract? All these questions are yet to be answered by the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL).