Revision of Election Timetable in Sierra Leone

Press Release.

NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION

15 Industrial Area, Wellington

Opposite former Aureol Tobacco Company
PRESS RELEASE: Revision of Election Timetable

Issued 10 May 2007

Section 87(1) of the Constitution states that "A general election of the members of Parliament shall be held not earlier than thirty days and not later than ninety days after the dissolution of Parliament: Provided that nominations for such elections shall in no case be closed within fourteen days after dissolution."

Under the above section of the Constitution the nominations for the Parliamentary election can not be closed before 9 July 2007.

In consideration of the fact that the Parliament will dissolve on 25 June 2007 the National Electoral Commission is required to review the timelines available for nomination of candidates and all other technical and operational preparations required prior to polling.

Technical and operational difficulties

1. Following the completion of the nomination process, all nomination forms and accompanying Documentation need to be delivered to NEC HQ. This can only be completed on 10 July 2007. Each of the 112 ballot papers then need to have all required data inputted electronically. This requires data entry of all candidate names, scanning of photos of all candidates, electronic merging of photos and party symbols or independent symbols onto ballot papers for the corresponding candidates and cross checking to ensure all data has been correctly entered for the correct candidate and for the correct constituency.

2. Given that there are 112 ballot papers and that there could be anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 different candidates, and possibly more, this process will take at least 4 days and possibly 1 week. This timeframe assumes that the ballot paper design would have been finalized well in advance of nominations, that the NEC will establish a large scale operation in order to complete the process as quickly as possible, that NEC staff would be working extended hours and that the process would commence as soon as nominations begin. Optimistically the final layout of the ballot papers would be completed by 14 July 2007 but could take longer.

3. Given the number of different ballot papers and the quantities required, the process of printing and packaging, where each constituency ballot paper has to be separately packed, labeled, palletized and labeled again according to district, will take considerable time. All packaging has the additional consideration that the election will take place in the rainy season and must therefore be resistant to the climatic conditions. It is estimated that the above processes will take 2 weeks to complete. The ballots will therefore not be ready for transportation into Sierra Leone before 28 July.

4. Under normal circumstances it would take up to one week from the arrival of ballot papers in country to final delivery to all polling centers. The pallets have to be broken down, each constituency ballot package separated and assigned to the correct constituency, all ballots delivered to the district and then delivered onwards to each respective polling center. Unlike the Presidential ballots, which can be delivered to any polling center, the Parliamentary ballots are constituency specific and therefore require quality control checking and verification at all stages of the distribution process.

5. Given that the election will take place during the rainy season the distribution of materials needs to take place sooner than is normal to enable the commission to execute contingency plans where difficulties and problems arise. Current operational planning estimates that up to one additional week is required to guarantee that all ballot papers arrive at all polling centers in time. Key factors considered in this regard are the need for porters to be employed to convey materials long distances where no other means are feasible and the difficulty with helicopter flights in the rainy season requiring flexible timeframes that allow for rescheduling of deliveries.

Recommendations and Conclusion

Based on the above technical and operational considerations, the date for the dissolution of Parliament and consequent completion of the National Electoral Commission has made the following recommendations:

· Elections are still held concurrently but are rescheduled to take place on 11 August 2007.

· Nominations for President to take place from 2 to 9 July 2007.

· Nominations for Parliament to take place from 2 to 9 July 2007.

· There will be one campaign period, for both the Presidential and Parliamentary elections, from 10 July to 9 August 2007.

· Final certified results of the Presidential election will be available on, or around, 23 August 2007.

· The run-off election, if required, will be held within 14 days from the announcement of the result from the previous election (in accordance with the Constitution). Therefore it is estimated that the run off election, if required, will be held on, or around, 6 September 2007. This date will be confirmed later following detailed analysis of operational requirements and progress with the first round count.

· The election for Paramount Chief Members of Parliament is held within a period which allows for the successful candidates to attend the first sitting of the new Parliament which will take place within 28 days from the 11 August 2007.

The Commission is in the process of assessing this proposed timeline in the light of other operational, technical and legal parameters and will publish the date for the elections in the National Gazette when this assessment is complete.

Signed... Christiana Thorpe (Chairperson & Chief Electoral Commissioner.

Photo: Miss Christiana Thorpe.