Lawyer Marrah Requests For District Level Results For Presidential, Parliamentary & Local Council
Legal Luminary and Popular Democracy advocate in SierraLeone, Augustine Sengeh Marrah, has written a strongly worded letter to the ECSL Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Konneh, using the relevant proviso in the right to information Act to request for certified and verified District level results for Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Councils held on June 24, 2023.
In his letter, Lawyer Marrah says his request is in line with section 2(1) of the right to access to information Act 2013 which gives him the right to know whether the Electoral Commission has in its custody and/or possession all sixteen districts certified summary results by the respective district returning officers pursuant to section 92(1) of the Public Elections Act 2022 for the Presidential, Parliamentary and local council elections held on 24th June,2023.
He says If the above is available, he is also to curious to know whether the said district certified summary results were verified by counting agents and observers present at the respective offices of the District Returning officers pursuant to section 92(2) of the Public Elections Act 2022 and also asked for legible hard or electronic copies to be dispatched to his office at 35 jones Street in Freetown.
See the letter below which was written by Lawyer Marrah to ECSL Boss.
Augustine Sorie-Sengbe Marrah Esq.
LLB. (Hons); LLM (HRDA—Pretoria); BL.
2nd floor, 35 Jones Street, Freetown.
Tel: 076497991 Email: bigsoe@gmail.com
28th July 2023
The Chief Electoral Commissioner
(National Returning Officer)
Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone
OAU Drive, Tower Hill
Freetown.
Dear Sir,
RE: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION REGARDING CERTIFIED & VERIFIED DISTRICT LEVEL RESULTS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL, LOCAL AND GENERAL ELECTIONS HELD ON 24TH JUNE 2023
I write to you as a citizen of Sierra Leone, a registered voter in the last general elections and a public interest advocate/democracy activist. I request pursuant to section 2(1) of the Right to Access Information Act 2013 confirmation on whether the Electoral Commission Sierra Leone (ECSL) has in its custody and/or possession all sixteen districts’ certified summary results by the respective District Returning Officers pursuant to section 92(1) of the Public Elections Act 2022 for the presidential, parliamentary, and local council elections held on 24th June 2023. If available, may I further request information on whether the said district certified summary results were verified by counting agents (political parties’ agents) and/or made available to counting agents and observers present at the respective offices of the District Returning Officers pursuant to section 92(2) of the Public Elections Act 2022? If the answer to my foregoing enquiries is in the affirmative, I request that legible hard or electronic copies of the said certified district level results be dispatched to my address (above) as appropriate.
Sir, as you might be aware, certain concerns, legitimate or otherwise, have been raised by both the ruling, Sierra Leone People’s Party and the opposition, All Peoples Congress Party regarding the results announced by ECSL. These concerns, whether in the process or the outcome, have hung doubts over the credibility of the results announced by ECSL and to a large extent ECSL’s electoral integrity. As an institution one of whose cardinal values is transparency/openness, releasing all sixteen districts’ certified and verified results of the last general elections would to some extent address the mistrust and dispel misinformation regarding the electoral process and outcome as undertaken by ECSL.
I hope you would consider complying with this request within the timeframe provided by law.
Yours faithfully,
Augustine S. Marrah Esq.
CC: The Executive Secretary, ECSL
The Commissioner, Right to Access Information Commission
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