There's a strange cloud hanging over Freetown these days... It's the cloud of uncertainty.
We're still waiting for the official announcement of election results... and the country is on edge. The National Electoral Commission (NEC) held a press conference last night and announced... get this... they're still counting. Madam Thorpe, the Chair of the NEC, also informed the country that 10% of the ballot boxes have been placed in quarantine. (Undoubtedly some have spots/measles which don't jive with voter registration numbers or have "pre-marked" spots that have invalidated the ballot) Ten percent of the approximately 12,000 ballot boxes is a substantial number and there's no word on when they'll be finished with the counting or validating. BTW, Sierra Leone voted four times... and had approximately 3000 polling stations.
The cloud isn't lifting any time soon... and official results aren't expected today (Thursday 22 November).
At the press conference held yesterday, Madam Thorpe mentioned a number of complaints made by the main opposition party, SLPP. She and her team are looking into the identified problems... but she stated that any evidence of election malpractice should be taken to the police. Hmmm, the reaction from most of Freetown is... "why the police? They're generally useless."
Political intrigue continues as SLPP and others uncovers further "evidence" of malpractice...
Rumours... rumours are everywhere...
Still waiting to see/hear - officially.
S/
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