Elections 2004: SFCG Generates Constructive Collaboration throughout Electoral Process

Governance has been a priority of SFCG's work in Sierra Leone since early 2002, with its support to the May 2002 presidential election. That election was the first since the end of Sierra Leone's brutal civil war. In May of this year, Sierra Leoneans again went to the polls, this time to elect local council representatives. SFCG-Sierra Leone supported peaceful and successful elections through collaboration with the Indpendent Radio Network, Sierra Leonean government agencies, and the National Elections Watch, an officially accredited coalition of civil society tasked with observing the electoral process.

Introduction
Governance has been a priority of SFCG's work in Sierra Leone since April 2002. Since then SFCG's Talking Drum Studio (TDS) has dedicated two radio programmes, Wi Yone Salone and Parliament Bol Hat to this issue, as well as many segments in other programmes including Common Ground Feature, Atunda Ayenda, Salone Woman and its local language programmes produced in the provinces.

Additionally, SFCG has sought to provide young people with experience in democratic and participatory governance processes through facilitated interaction with elected representatives, government officials, and communities. Together they have explored obstacles to good governance.

In May 2002 SFCG facilitated the creation of the Independent Radio Network (IRN) and collaborated with community and independent radio stations to report on the Presidential and Parliamentary elections. Following on the success of the IRN's work and coupled with overwhelming positive feedback from this event, SFCG developed a strategy to engage in the local council electoral process of May 2004.

Shortly after the parliamentary approval of the Local Government Act in March 2004, SFCG stepped up its efforts toward the local government election planned for 22 May. Due to the short time frame available for voter education (which in this election meant explaining why at the town level each voter has four votes rather than the one vote at the district level), SFCG worked fast to call a stakeholders meeting comprising Sierra Leonean civil society, the National Electoral Commission (NEC), and international NGOs involved in the electoral process. This initial meeting set the tone for collaboration with the NEC, and determined coordination, consistency in messaging, and the development of a strategy for the process.

Strategy
The strategy meeting among stakeholders produced a three-pronged approach involving voter education, IRN activities - access to media for candidates and election reporting, and support to the network of local elections observers. These three sets of interventions were geared to support civil society involvement in ensuring clarity, fairness, and transparency during the electoral process.

Method
a) Policy Issues
From the initial stages of the policy development of the Local Government Act, SFCG engaged with various stakeholders, especially parliament and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to bring community input into the bill and later the act of parliament. Two TDS radio programmes were dedicated to this process with the objective of stimulating discussion between government administration, parliament, and citizens about the document.

b) Voter Education
A sustained voter education campaign with the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and the Local Government Ministry began with briefing sessions given by ministry and NEC officials for SFCG producers, play wrights, and actors. Four TDS programmes (Wi Yone Salone, Salone Woman, Atunda Ayenda, and Paliment Bol Hat) constantly threaded a variety of voter education messages throughout. Jingles were produced in both Krio and local languages, distributed to radio stations, and used in other TDS programmes. NEC messages and jingles were duplicated by SFCG and distributed using existing SCFG networks.

A community outreach campaign designed to reach and address deep problems and issues with the electoral process was held in the four headquarter towns in Bo district. SFCG collaborated with the Civil Society Movement , radio stations, and Ministry of Local Government officials. The outreach activities created the space and opportunity for communities to clarify thorny issues in the process as well as the various sources of conflicting information that were being disseminated by other players, especially party stalwarts. In Makeni, SFCG partnered with the Civil Society Movement in outdoor activities with the candidates by creating a forum in the middle of town for candidates to talk to their communities. This local government election meeting lasted 15 days, with each day providing opportunity to different candidates. SFCG provided the stage and speaker system for this event. Recordings of the sessions were developed into radio programmes.

c) IRN
During the campaigning period, SFCG and IRN initiated the "meet your candidate debate." SFCG staff travelled around the country collecting interviews and discussions with candidates producing programmes that were aired by the network while the radio stations gave free airtime to the candidates to discuss their platforms with their constituencies. This normally took the form of discussion and phone calls to the radio stations, although each of the nine radio stations involved had their own format depending on the number of candidates in the area. The one requirement was that for access to this free airtime the candidates had to complete a form, requiring them to articulate their platforms in writing.

SFCG and IRN organised the training and deployment of some 178 IRN reporters across the country to report during polling day. Satellite and mobile phones and VHF radio sets for reporters' vehicles were provided. Reporters called in to radio stations to report on polling station happenings from the start of polling to counting, including the results. Simultaneous broadcast was done at two levels; in Freetown with three radio stations and in the provinces with six radio stations. Two bases to collect information and transmit live on these radio stations were created in SFCG office in Freetown and in Makale. This led to a national broadcast of the events and results and also gave the opportunity for the NEC to respond to the varying polling problems.

d) New
SFCG is chair for the National Elections Watch (NEW), a coalition of civil society groups and non-governmental organisations, which observed the local council elections. The NEW coordinated the deployment of 1,437 observers in the 12 districts and western region. The chair issued press releases, did public information work including over 10 interviews on a variety of radio stations, as well as developed the preliminary elections report. As chair, SFCG also held a consultative process with the regional and district coordinators for a debriefing on the entire electoral process. An extensive report will be later released.

For more information about the local council elections in Sierra Leone, visit the Independent Radio Network's election site at: http://www.elections-sl.org/index.html

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