By Hasbin Shaw in Freetown, Sierra Leone
Tens, perhaps hundreds, of citizens in the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown on Tuesday April 3, 2018 held a peaceful protest calling on the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to release the 31st March presidential runoff results.
The protesters were carrying placards in front of the Chamber of the Chief Justice and Judiciary of Sierra Leone on Siaka Stevens Street in central Freetown. Some of the placards read: “NEC must announce the elections result,” while others screamed, “We don’t want any injunction this time around,” and “The children need to go back to school.”
The protesters call on National Electoral Commission (NEC) to announce the runoff elections result so that the country could get back to normalcy.
Speaking to our Correspondent in Freetown, one of the protesters, Martin Jonnah Lissa, said, “The people of this country are urging for the results because nothing is going on in the country at the moment. We should have voted March 27, 2018, but the injunction causes the rescheduling of the runoff. We voted on March 31, but the results are yet to be announced.”
He added that both the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) party have started having disagreement on the use of NEC software, which may cause another delay.
According to Lissa, the children of Sierra Leone want to go back to school, and the business people want to continue with their usual selling.
“We believe the court has the authority to order NEC to quickly go ahead with the result so everything could get back to normalcy,” Lissa noted.
Another protester, Connell F. S. Gottor (rtd) believes the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) party is trying to petition NEC which may cause another injunction and it would hold the country at ransom.
“We had played our own role as citizens by participating in the electoral process, so we are expecting the commission to operate in the mandate with which they are created for. The process has been over delayed so we now want everything to get back to normal,” said Colonel Gottor
NEC said in a statement on Sunday, April 1, 2018, “The NEC’S election result process is going on, and both political parties agreed not to undermined or disrupt the result process and to allow it to expeditiously move to it conclusion.”
The National Returning office of NEC, Mr. Mohamed N’fah Alie Conteh told a news conference in Freetown on 31st March 2018 that the result will soon be announced, noting, “It’s just a matter of days or hours.”
