Constituency 040 Parliamentary Bye-Election

Freetown, 14th September, 2019: Constituency 040 Parliamentary Bye-Election Ends Peacefully, But NEW Calls for More Strict Enforcement of Security Regulations National Election Watch (NEW) applauds the peaceful conduct of the parliamentary Bye-Election in Constituency 040 in Falaba District held on Saturday 14 September 2019 by the National Electoral Commission (NEC). Though the election ended peacefully, NEW observed a few challenges in the enforcement of order and compliance with vehicle movement and crowd control by security personnel assigned to polling centres. The vacancy in Constituency 040 occurred following the judgement of the High Court of Sierra Leone delivered on 31st May 2019, on the petition filed against the substantive winner of the 2018 parliamentary election, which was declared null and void. NEW deployed stationed observers in all the 27 Polling Centres in Constituency 040, 3 roving supervisors to support the stationed observers and to respond promptly to incidences. Additionally, NEW deployed an oversight support team comprising members of the Strategic Management Committee (SMC) and secretariat staff. NEW observed the entire process, including opening, polling, closing and counting, tallying, and the announcement of results, which was done in Kabala Community Centre on Sunday, 15th September 2019.

• 14th-September-2019 pdf (621kb) [ download ]