By Sulaiman Jalloh
The National Council for Civic Education and Democracy (NaCCED) has, on Monday, June 24, 2024, at the Atlantic Lumley Hotel, West of Freetown, commenced a two-day Citizens Dialogue Session under the theme; ‘Consolidating Democracy by Promoting Inclusive Participation.’
Giving overview of the Citizens Dialogue Session, the Chairman of NaCCED, Mr. Kalilu Totangi said the dialogue was meant to consolidate democracy and promote inclusive participation, noting the session was also to take a keen look and have their own views on the country’s state of democracy, adding that a lot has been said after the June 24, 2023 multi-tire elections. “What we are doing here today is to have a look as citizens of this country the state of the Sierra Leone democracy, because what we did in the last project ‘Deepening Democracy’ together with other CSOs had huge positive effect on citizens as 80 percent came out to vote with less violence,” he asserted
Making her opening remarks, the Chairperson for the National Commission for Democracy (NCD), Madam Marian Sanu said the session was traditional session for her institution to have engaged and dialogue with citizens, thus will help them give a comprehensive report. While reflecting on the country’s last year’s election, she said, it is always the case for few people to represent the majority. She furthered that they had decided to convene such an event to give citizens the platform to dialogue on what they think about the election, the manner in which it was conducted, the electoral laws and how they are going to make it better for Sierra Leone. “I hope that we would go out today from this meeting thinking that the issues that brought the dead luck of the 2023 elections would be a thing of the past and that we would never be expecting that to happen again,” she stated.
Delivering the keynote address, the Chairperson of the National Electoral Commissioner for Sierra Leone (ECSL), Mohammed K. Konneh, highlighted issues regarding the Commission and the effort they had made to ensure that peaceful and inclusive elections were conducted. Among which he said the setting up of basic electoral principles governing the Commission something, he said, reflect their effective and efficient implementation.
Mr Konneh went on revealing that in order to ensure that inclusive, free and fair elections were conducted, the ECSL as the umbrella commission established sub-commissions such as inclusive, gender and women’s commission, adding that the Public Elections Act was reviewed, enabling more access to information, and the GEWE Act was also another they used to ensure more women participate into national politics and the country’s governance space.
The Commissioner talked about perception created by politicians with the intent of ‘dishing’ wrong information to their supporters. He urged all politicians looking forward for victory to effectively and efficiently engage with their supporters, engaging them on voter education and to stop blackmailing the Commission emphasizing the accessibility of the ECSL offices for interested citizens.
The European Union representative, Julius Foday expressed gratitude for the contribution of his organisation into the country’s democracy and the World at large, saying most times citizens asked about democracy. “Absence of democracy can lead to the increase of violations of human rights,” the EU rep asserted while encouraging all to respect one another.
Also speaking was the Chairperson for IDEA who explained the purpose and significance of the Citizens Dialogue Session, saying it was about citizens and their key representations. He highlighted about citizens’ right, the role of the rule of law and citizens right of association and governance conversation. He noted that what is existing in Sierra Leone is not tribalism but ethnic politicization.
Others speakers include the Chairman for the National Council of Paramount Chiefs (NCPC), Deputy Chairman of the Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion (ICPNC). It is expected that after the citizens dialogue it will increase understanding of democracy amongst citizens of the African country especially by promoting inclusive participation in decision making.
Copyright –Published in print in Expo Times Newspaper on Wednesday, June 26th , 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)