APC Scribe Accuses ECSL Of Creating Chaos
In a press conference held last week in which the APC party raised concerns over the problems plaguing the Voters ID Cards distributed to citizens, the Secretary General of the party, Lansana Dumbuya Esq. told the media that what the Electoral Commission For Sierra Leone (ECSL) has done is to create confusion in the coming elections of 24th June 2023, as many of the voters, whose pictures are blurred will not be able to vote, and this may lead to many demanding their fundamental right to exercise their franchise as citizens to vote. He furthered that there are thousands of voters, whose pictures are not clear on the cards, and cannot be easily identified as the true owners of those cards, and this creates the possibility of other people using those cards to vote instead of the rightful owners, or being barred from voting because the polling officers are unable to clearly identify then with the cards at their possession.
Lawyer Dumbuya said that there are also those whose names did not appear on the voters’ register, those with wrong names, as in the case of a man having a female name and a woman having a male name; These people, he went on will not be able to vote, and this will mean disenfranchising them. He stated that everybody wants a peaceful election, but the aforementioned situation does not augur well for a peaceful election, as confusion is sure to arise.
He furthered that unscrupulous people will take advantage of the situation to use ID Cards of other to vote, since the pictures are not clear, and identification of the voter is questionable. He noted that peace goes with Justice, adding that without Justice, there will be no peace, and called on the ECSL to do Justice to the people of Sierra Leone by doing the needful to allow people to cast their votes for their preferred choice. He stated that with the correct thing done, anyone that emerges as Leader will be easily acceptable to all, as it will be seen as free and fair, but as things stand, the election will be far from free and fair, especially when certain sections of the population are prevented from voting because of flawed ID Cards, courtesy of ECSL. Who will you blame?
He called on the ECSL to rectify the mistakes in the voters’ ID Cards and enable citizens to exercise their fundamental constitutional right to choose their leaders.
