June 29 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) of the European Union has asked the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone to publish “without delay” the results of the general elections in the country, in which President Julius Maada Bio has renewed the position, in elections flatly rejected by the opposition.
“To defuse tensions, the EOM calls on the Electoral Commission to promptly publish disaggregated data on the results by electoral college, including a copy of the results forms, which would offer the possibility of public scrutiny of the results and would guarantee the transparency and certainty,” reads a statement.
The MOE has observed statistical inconsistencies between the first and second rounds of presidential results published by the electoral body, notifying a “particularly low number of invalid votes — 0.4 percent throughout the country — and “very high” participation. ” in various districts.
Likewise, the mission has encouraged “all interested parties” to address their claims arising from the electoral process “peacefully, through dialogue and using the stipulated legal mechanisms.”
This Monday, the EU observers made public a preliminary statement in which they pointed out “lack of transparency” in the reception of sensitive material and the first phases of counting in the regional centers, since they could not observe “in a significant way the verification of the results forms.
“The number and type of corrections and annulments of the results of the tables were not made public or shared with party agents and observing citizens,” explains the letter, which points out that this lack of publication of disaggregated data “has compromised the transparency of the results management process”.
The Sierra Leone Election Commission confirmed on Tuesday Bio’s victory in the first round after achieving 57 percent of the votes, against his main rival, Samura Kamara, who was left with 41 percent of the ballots, in an election marked by complaints from the opposition that denounces lack of access to the verification and recount processes.
The vote and, especially, the repercussions that it may have at a political and economic level, will mark the future in the short term in the country, which aspires to consolidate the democratic advances obtained in the two decades that have passed since the end of the civil war ( 1991-2002), which left around 120,000 dead.
