Counting of votes is ongoing across polling stations in Sierra Leone where elections were held Saturday across the different districts in the West African country.

The election is considered a straight contest between the president and candidate of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Julius Bio, and Samura Kamara, the flagbearer of the All Peoples Congress (APC).

Other presidential candidates in the elections are Bah Mohamed Chernoh of the National Democratic Alliance; Coker Prince, People’s Democratic Party; Jonjo Mohamed, Citizens Democratic Party; Kabuta Henry, United National Peoples Party; and Kakay Iye, Alliance Democratic Party.

Also on the ballot are Kamara Musa, Peace and Liberation Party; Margai Francis, People’s Movement For Democratic Change; Saccoh Dougakoro, Revolutionary United Front Party; Sandy Patrick, National Unity and Reconciliation Party; Sowa-Turay Mohamed, United Democratic Movement; and Williams Victor, Republic National Independent Party.

In addition to the presidential ballot, Sierra Leonean voters will also elect members of parliament and local councillors in what will be the fifth election since the end of the country’s civil war, 21 years ago.

Peaceful Conduct

Despite the pre-election tension and violent rhetoric, the election has largely been peaceful across different parts of the country.

In Freetown, the nation’s capital city, PREMIUM TIMES observed that voters trooped out peacefully to cast their votes for their favourite candidates. In few places where voting was delayed such as the SOS Children Village in Lumley, electoral officials eventually arrived to salvage the situation before noon.

In many parts of the Western District of Sierra Leone, voting has ended as of press time Saturday night while counting of votes was ongoing. At Salam Secondary School, Kossoh Town Western Rural, polling center 15124, three people were disenfranchised.

According to ECSL workers at the center, the Identity cards (ID) presented by the voters were not valid as the information on their voter’s register didn’t match the ID Cards of the three voters.

At Constituency 105, Polling Center 15003, Ward 372, three people were caught trying to engage in double voting. The ECSL voter’s register at the center showed that the three men had voted, or other people might have voted on their behalf earlier, and they were handed over to the security forces for further investigation.

At Waterloo, Western Rural District, polling center 15005, Ward 373, Constituency 105, there were reported cases of suspected ballot stuffing, which resulted in violence. But PREMIUM TIMES understands that the security forces promptly contained the situation. Voting was also delayed at Constituency 127, New England Ville, due to the late arrival of polling materials.

Although the election has been relatively peaceful, with high voter turnout, late arrival of voting materials remains a concern, says John Kamara, a resident of Waterloo.

Announcement of Results

Results of the election are expected to trickle in at the end of the manual counting of votes, says Jalloh Mohamed, an election observer in Freetown.

If no presidential candidate secures 55 per cent of valid votes cast in the first ballot, the top two candidates will slug it out in a run-off two weeks after the announcement of the first-round result, according to the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL).

Ahead of the polls, security agencies had advised radio stations to desist from announcing the results of the elections until the electoral umpire makes official announcement.

While voting in the elections is scheduled to end by 5:00pm, the ECSL on Saturday said that voters in queues must be allowed to vote. The electoral umpire, in a press statement posted on its Twitter handle, also acknowledged the late arrival of polling materials in some parts of the Western District due to “logistic” reasons.

Manual counting of votes was ongoing in many of the polling stations across the country as of press time Saturday night.

Credit to: premiumtimeng.com

ECSL Press Release on Attack on Polling Staff by Some Members of the Public in Certain Areas

There was a mild drama at the presidential election petition court (PEPC) yesterday over claims by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deliberately deleted presidential election results from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.

Atiku and presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, are currently before presidential elections petition court where they are contesting the emergence of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as winner of the February 25 presidential election on the platform of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC).

It started when Atiku’s witness, Hitler Nwuala, told the court sitting in Abuja that the electoral umpire deliberately deleted all the results of presidential elections from the BVAS machines of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under the guise of preparing for the March 18 governorship election.

Nwuala, a forensic expert, who was the 26th witness for Atiku claimed that he inspected 110 BVAS devices used during the presidential polls in the FCT and all the machines he inspected had their data deliberately deleted.

But when counsel to INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud presented a BVAS machine to the court for demonstration, which he asked the witness to access and show proof that the data was deleted, Nwuala refused to operate the machine on grounds that it against professional ethics for him to do so in court.

Nwuala maintained during cross-examination by INEC’s lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, that it was unnecessary for the electoral body to have deleted the presidential election result data from BVAS machines used in the FCT because the FCT did not hold governorship elections.

Led in his evidence by the lead counsel to the petitioners, Atiku and PDP, Chris Uche (SAN), the subpoenaed witness told the court that he examined 110 BVAS machines as sample material from the FCT and submitted a report of his investigation carried out on the BVAS.

Despite objections by the respondents, INEC, Tinubu and the APC, the court admitted the report as evidence and marked it as exhibits, just as the petitioners tendered a certificate of compliance to indicate that the report had complied with the Evidence Act.

Nwuala who was under cross-examination by counsel to INEC maintained during cross-examination that since there is a deviation in the small sample space of 110 samples analysed, “it is likely to increase as the number of sample size increases.”

He said he “worked on 110 BVAS machines, which formed the primary source of information for his forensic report.”

According to him, the machines inspected were only those from the FCT and that he did not know at what point the results were deleted from the machines.

The witness further noted that he attached a standard device to the BVAS machine to carry out his investigation.

But challenging the allegation, INEC argued that because the witness could not inspect all the machines, his claim was wrong.

When Nwuala maintained his stance, INEC’s lawyer, Mahmoud, presented to the court, for demonstration, a BVAS machine, which he asked the witness to access and show proof that the data was deleted.

The witness refused, saying it was professionally wrong for him to access the machine directly.

Nwuala said, “We don’t access the source of evidence directly. We extract the evidence and access it from another source. If we access it now, the content will change and will tamper with the evidence. It is professionally wrong to tamper with evidence that will be relied upon in a court of law.”

INEC insisted the BVAS must be inspected in court, but the chairman of the five-member panel of the court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, reminded the respondent counsel that the allotted time for conducting his cross-examination had elapsed.

In his submission, counsel for President Tinubu, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), pointed out disparities in the forensic report concerning the number of machines inspected by the witness.

Olanipekun contended that the report could also be riddled with errors, but the witness told the court that the differences dictated in the numbers were typographical errors.

He confronted the witness with a portion of his report where he said that from his inspection of the machines, “nothing was intrinsically wrong with them”, and asked him if he was in Abuja during the presidential poll.

“Were you in Abuja on the day of the presidential election? If you were not in Abuja, how then can you know that there was nothing intrinsically wrong with the machines on the day of the election?” Olanipekun queried.

Nwuala said he was not in Abuja and so he couldn’t have known if something went wrong with the machines on the day of the election.

Meanwhile, Atiku and his party continued their battle against the declaration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the election with the tendering of certified exhibits in four more states of the federation.

The exhibits tendered are certified true copies of INEC’s Form EC8A used by the electoral body during the presidential election.

The sensitive documents were tendered in 20 local government areas of Ogun, 17 local government areas of Ondo, 27 local government areas of Jigawa, and 20 local government areas of Rivers State.

Although the admissibility of the exhibits was vehemently opposed by INEC, Tinubu, and the All Progressives Congress (APC), who are the three respondents in the petition, the court went ahead and admitted them.

While the court would entertain further hearing on the petition today, PDP and Atiku are expected to close their case after today’s proceedings.

Credit to: leadership.ng