Dr. Samura calls for the resignation of ECSL Chief Electoral Commissioner

The Presidential Candidate of the All People’s Congress (APC) party, Dr. Samura Kamara has questioned the integrity of the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) and called for the immediate resignation of the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Konneh and all regional commissioners in the next seventy-two hours. 

Dr. Kamara made this ultimatum in less than ten days to the poll in a press conference held at the New BrookFields Hotel in Freetown on Wednesday afternoon. The Presidential hopeful mentioned that there have been a lot of irregularities in the electoral process which he believes are setting a strong basis for the incumbent government to rig the election later this month. 

In his statement, Dr. Kamara highlighted some of the anomalies that have been portrayed by the electoral body, including poor printing of voter’s ID cards, saying the majority of the voter’s ID cards were blurry.   

Dr. Kamara also expressed his deep frustration over the lack of a comprehensive final nationwide voters registration data which has not been released in due time. He further said that the tallying of votes should be done manually in the presence of both local and foreign observers and political party representatives and not by any electronic process. 

“The ECSL Chief Commissioner, Mr. Mohamed Konneh and all other Commissioners in the ECSL should resign within 72 hours, and be replaced by an internationally accredited electoral body to conduct a free and fair election,” said Dr. Kamara. 

Dr. Kamara believes that the recent actions by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone are a clear manifestation that they should not be trusted and that they are not competent enough to handle the election.

He also mentioned that his campaign trips have been heavily intimidating, with severe harassment, embarrassment and brutality by state forces, which he and his supporters keep facing in different parts of the country.