Sierra Leone Holds First Local Elections in 32 Years, SFCG Plays Key Role

Search for Common Ground has been engaged in Sierra Leone since 2000 working to strengthen the capacity of communities to participate in building a tolerant, inclusive society for sustainable peace. The ten-year war claimed 50,000 lives, left thousands mutilated (many people had their hands cut off for casting votes in a national elections), displaced over a million people from their homes, and turned more than 7,000 children into child soldiers. Since the end of the war in 2002 the country has struggled to rebuild and to heal.

Sierra Leone recently experienced an important milestone when the first local elections in 32 years were successfully held throughout the country last May. Search for Common Ground played a prominent role by chairing the National Elections Watch (NEW), an officially accredited coalition of civil society organisations, tasked with observing the election process. NEW led national public information campaign and coordinated the training and placement of 1,437 election observers.

During the campaign period, SFCG staff travelled throughout the country doing interviews, holding discussions with candidates, and producing programmes that were aired on the Independent Radio Network (IRN) that SFCG helped to create in 2002. IRN pioneered a series of "Meet Your Candidate" programmes during which the public called the radio stations to ask questions to the local candidates.

SFCG and IRN trained approximately 180 IRN reporters, who were dispersed throughout the country with satellite and mobile phones and VHF radio sets, through which they sent regular reports from the polling stations. Two bases for information collection and live transmission were created at SFCG offices in Freetown and Makeni, resulting in national simultaneous broadcasts of election results.

During the pre-election period, SFCG's Talking Drum Studio (TDS) radio programmes focused on issues of good governance, so as to stimulate discussion between government administration, Parliament, and citizens. TDS brought together young people with elected representatives, government officials, and community leaders to give them an experience of democracy in action. Voter education messages were consistently threaded throughout TDS programmes. Finally, TDS produced jingles in both Krio and other languages and distributed them along with its other programmes to radio stations across the country.

One young woman who experienced democracy and voting for the first time told our reporter, "I almost lost my breath when the polling assistant handed me the ballot paper. But I overcame it as I moved to the voting booth to cast my first vote ever, without prejudice."

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