17 September 2008

Tonkolili, Sierra Leone: My vision in electoral work is to see the evolution of a democratic country in which every citizen has an equal opportunity to participate in choosing the government. Thanks to the United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone (UNIOSIL), I had the chance to participate in Sierra Leone as a UNV volunteer Operations and Logistic Advisor to the Electoral Assistance Team.

My mission was to learn and become a model and a mentor as an Electoral Advisor and consultant who could help oversee free, fair, credible and professional elections. I wanted to contribute to democratization and capacity strengthening. That meant helping to give citizens the strength to make informed choices. I myself sometimes needed to take timely advice to contribute on electoral issues.

Working in Tonkolili in the northern region of Sierra Leone was a nightmare when we started. The representatives of the political parties were not cordial to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) office in Tonkolili. We used to have major incidents and protests, and there were accusations and counter-accusations. This mistrust of the NEC was a major issue for the political parties.

As Operations Advisor, I came up with an approach to strengthen the working relationship with the political parties. I proposed through the NEC that a committee should be formed, which would include three representatives from each party. These would be a chairperson representing the party (a decision-maker), a woman leader, and a youth leader.

There would also be a representative of the Sierra Leone Police, two representatives from civil society and two religious leaders. The NEC District Electoral Officer would be the as ex-official Chair of the Committee.

The idea was to try to create peace and trust among the political parties and make them assist in the elections rather than oppose the NEC. They could thus harmonize and implement their work in consultation with the NEC, and cooperate with NEC to discourage any malpractices among party supporters.

The move was welcomed and with the blessings of NEC Commissioner, the Peace and Reconciliation Committee was formed. Since that time, Tonkolili has been peaceful. Ever since, the political parties have entered dialogue as friends.

The same idea was started elsewhere, via the UNDP office in charge of the Political Parties Registration Commission. They came up with a different name, the 'Code Monitoring Committee', which was implemented in every district.

Looking back, I achieved a goal. The sky is my limit.