By Francis Ntow
Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt), May 30, GNA – The Government of Sierra Leone says it is ready to hold peaceful, free and fair elections come June 24 as official campaign begins.
Mr Bockarie Albert Kalokoh, a Deputy Minister of Finance of the country, said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at the just ended annual meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
“We’re well prepared to hold peaceful elections, and the Government is alert. We are committed to ensure that the police and the election body deliver on their mandate,” Mr Kalokoh said.
Sierra Leone’s 2023 presidential election will be contested by 13 candidates, including incumbent president, Julius Maada Bio of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and Samura Karama of the All People’s Congress (APC), who was the runner-up in the 2018 polls.
Speaking about the prevailing economic hardship in the country, including high inflation, he said the Government had taken cognisance of the challenges and was working “relentlessly to ensure that our people are better”.
He said Sierra Leone was opened to the support of development partners, including AfDB, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, while the Government worked on internal mechanisms to address the economic challenges.
Mr Kalokoh noted for example that talks had been advanced for AfDB’s support in development projects in Sierra Leone, including the Lungi Bridge – 7km long bridge to link the Lungi area to Freetown, passing over the estuary of the Sierra Leone River.
“We’ve been able to develop innovative financing arrangement so that we can tap more into domestic funds, and we’ve also looked into our tax laws to enhance domestic revenue mobilisation and mitigating against cost containment of whatever we’re doing,” he added.
Commenting on an $8m Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Sierra Leone and four other countries to increase domestic revenue, the Deputy Finance was hopeful that
it would also increase the Bank’s support to the country as they contributed to the replenishment the African Development Fund (ADF).
Ghana, The Gambia, Liberia, and Sudan are the four countries that signed the MoU, which is to augment financing from development partners to expand domestic private sector-led economic growth and development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
“We’ve affirmed our commitment as a Constituency to improve our contribution towards the replenishment of the Fund and this is to ensure that once we improve our contribution to the Fund, we’ll have more in terms of monetary support from ADF”,” the Deputy Finance Minister said.
Voters in Sierra Leone will on June 24 elect a President and Members of Parliament, Mayors and local councillors.
A report by the Institute of Governance Reform (IGR) has indicated a high level of preparedness for the 2023 general election by the country’s Election Management Bodies (EMBs), including the security sector.
“Overall Sierra Leone is 67 per cent ready to go ahead with the 2023 elections. Expert assessment was a little lower (61 per cent) than inter-institutional scores (73 per cent) and self-assessment (70 per cent),” IGR’s report observed.
About three days ago, the presidential candidates, especially those belonging to the major political parties, signed a peace pledge ahead of the country’s highly anticipated 2023 general election, with a commitment to ensure a successful poll.
A survey by Afrobarometer and IGR, which was conducted to understand the attitudes of Sierra Leoneans as the 2023 elections approached, raised warnings about leaders’ commitment in the “fragile post-war state”.
It was observed that the proportion of citizens who prioritised Sierra Leonean identity over their ethnic identity had dropped by 20 percentage points over the past decade.
It was recommended that going into the 2023 elections, leaders demonstrated and acted in a way that would make the people rally behind peace, while authorities worked to ensure peaceful and successful poll.
GNA
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30 May