In advance of the nation’s scheduled general elections in June 2023, the West African Elders’ Forum (WAEF) has sent a pre-election fact-finding team to Sierra Leone under the direction of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
This information may be found in a statement made on Wednesday in Abuja by Wealth Ominabo, Communications Officer for the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation (GJF), which is hosting WAEF.
Ominabo claimed that the fact-finding team also included former Gambian vice president Fatoumata Tambajang and former Gambian president Goodluck Jonathan.
In order to increase public confidence and trust in the election process, he stated that the team would be interacting with important political figures and other key stakeholders in Sierra Leone.
The two-day mission is scheduled to start on Wednesday in favour of inclusive and peaceful general elections. (April 12)
Members of the missions will consult with the political actors and stakeholders in the nation, including the diplomatic corps, the civil society, and the Electoral Management Bodies and Agencies.
This is being done in an effort to gauge the level of readiness for holding credible, free, and open elections, he explained.
According to Ominabo, the Forum’s goal of fostering preventive diplomacy as a means of lessening electoral-related tension and bloodshed across Africa was aligned with the mission to Sierra Leone.
He claimed that WAEF, which was established in 2020 to advance peace, democracy, and good governance, had travelled to numerous nations, including the Gambia and Nigeria, on preventive diplomacy missions.
Beyond its involvement in Sierra Leone, the WAEF is tasked with performing a similar duty in Liberia, both of which will hold general elections in 2023, according to Ominabo.
He noted that the WAEF had sent a team of past presidents to meet with some of the presidential candidates and other significant players in Nigeria after the country’s presidential and national assembly elections on February 25.
In order to prevent post-election violence in the nation, he claimed that the team was communicating a message of peace to the stakeholders.
The 2023 elections in Sierra Leone will be the sixth democratic elections held there and the fifth after the civil war’s end in 2002.
