Sierra Leone Presidential and Parliamentary Elections 2007 - Arrival Statement

I am pleased to confirm that the full complement of the Commonwealth Observer Group, (COG) has now arrived in Sierra Leone and will formally begin its mission today.

The Commonwealth Observer Group is here in response to the invitation of the Government of Sierra Leone and the National Electoral Commission to observe the Presidential and Parliamentary elections scheduled for 11 August, 2007.

On receipt of the invitation, the Secretary General dispatched an Assessment Mission in May 2007 to consult with the political parties, officials of the National Elections Commission as well as Civil Society, to assess the political environment and determine whether there was broad consensus for our presence in the country. Having been satisfied that all conditions were met, the Secretary-General constituted and dispatched this mission to Sierra Leone.

The Commonwealth and Sierra Leone have come a long way. We have been involved in peacemaking and post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation since 2000. We constituted a Commonwealth Secretariat Task Force which engaged in a wide range of programmes to resettle former soldiers and war victims. We also assisted in the creation of an environment conducive to the holding of democratic elections. We observed the 2002 elections and assisted in the implementation of some of the recommendations of our observer group designed to strengthen democracy.

We are happy to be here again to contribute towards concretizing the re-emergence of the democratic traditions of Sierra Leone. One member of our team arrived ahead of us and began his work as an ‘Advance Observer’ on Friday 20th July 2007.

We are to conduct this mission “impartially and independently and in accordance with the standards expressed in the International Expression of Principles to which most of the international organizations including the Commonwealth are signatories. We have no executive role. Our function is not to supervise but to observe the process as a whole and to form a judgement accordingly”.

In our final report, we may propose to the appropriate authorities, recommendations for change on institutional, procedural and other matters as would assist the holding of future elections.”

While each of us has been selected to participate in this mission on the basis of experience and professional expertise, we do not represent the countries from which we have come or any of the professional or national organizations to which we belong. We are here solely as citizens of the Commonwealth.

We intend to be faithful to that mandate and will carry out our duties in accordance with the standards expressed in the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observers and its accompanying Code of Conduct for International Election Observers. We will be impartial, objective, professional and respectful throughout this exercise. We are not here to interfere.

The team intends to observe and evaluate the pre-election process, the election process itself and the post-election process. Apart from meeting with officials managing the elections and representatives of political parties, we will be holding discussions with the NGO community, Civil Society groups and Sierra Leoneans from across the country.

We will begin our activities with a series of meetings with the stakeholders mentioned above and later, we will deploy to various parts of the country. We intend to establish meaningful links and co-operative arrangements with other observer groups, especially during the period of observation.

We also note that this election returns Sierra Leone to a first past the post system.  Clearly, we will seek to observe what impact this change has brought to the election campaign and the election process itself.

We will return to Freetown after the elections and issue an interim statement commenting on the process and outcome of the election based on the reports of our observers.  We will then prepare a full report, which we will submit to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, who will forward it to the Government of Sierra Leone, the Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone, the leadership of the political parties and thereafter to all Commonwealth Governments.

The observation team appreciates that this is a historic election. It provides for the transfer of authority from one civilian government to another. This is a milestone for Sierra Leone, as it seeks to strengthen and deepen its democratic processes and traditions.

We look forward through this mission to making a useful contribution to the strengthening of democracy in Sierra Leone.

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Sierra Leone Presidential and Parliamentary Elections 2007 - Arrival Statement by Dr the Hon Kenny D. Anthony, Chairperson, Commonwealth Observer Group