By Hasbin Shaw In Freetown, Sierra Leone
West Africa Network for Peacebuilding-Sierra Leone (WANEP-SL) Situation Report on the Mitigation of Threats to the peaceful conduct of the 2018 general elections in Sierra Leone shows that Western Urban remains the district with the highest potential of election-related violence.
WANEP’s National Early Warning Signals situation reports for January 2018 says there were a total of 21 incident reports submitted. “These incidents occurred in nine districts, namely Kono, Western Urban, Kambia, Port Loko, Western Rural, Kenema, Bonthe, Kilahun and Pujehun.”
The group says a significant number of violent incidents were physical. “In line with the NEWS indicators, physical violence recorded the highest frequency of incidents at 62 percent, conformity to the rule of law at 19 percent, ethics and procedure at 14 percent and hostile communication at five percent,” WANEP said.
The report states that the analysis of districts with highest recorded incidents of violence in the past five months indicates that Western Urban remains the district with highest potential of election related violence. The other high-risk districts include Bombali, Kono, Port Loko, Kailahun and Kenema.
Medium to high-risk areas include Moyamba, Kambia, Tonkolili and Bo. In terms of regional distribution, the Western and Eastern and Northern regions highlight a higher frequency of incidents within the five-month period.
In her presentation on the objective of the interactive session, said that the session is to provide atmosphere for effective media coverage, to provide the platform to discuss the early warning signs and to increase the response base.
In her presentation on the dimensions of threats and hotspots to the peaceful conduct of the 2018 general elections, the National Network Coordinator of WANEP-SL, Dr Isata Mahoi highlighted major incidences and public debates related to physical violence and conformity to the rule of law.
She said that the current security threats are physical violence and destruction of properties.
NERG was set up in July 2017 with the primary objective to discuss, develop and recommend response strategies to violent threats to the March 7, 2018 general elections. NERG constitutes members of National Electoral Commission, Inter Religious Council, Political Parties Registration Commission, Search for Common Ground, 50-50 Group, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Office of National Security, Campaign for Good Governance, National Election Watch, Independent Radio Network, National Youth Commission, Institute for Governance Reforms, Centre for Coordination of Youth Activities, National Commission for Democracy and the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone.
