The way I see Liberia

From what I have observed and according to the information reaching my desk, the run-off election in Sierra Leone could have been avoided, if the various parties that participated in the first round election on August 8, 2007, had conducted massive voters education to their supporters prior to Election Day. One main reason for run-off elections is the disqualification of thousands and thousands of ballots that were wrongly filled out by the many voters who were blindly ignorant of the entire process. Electoral processes in third world countries are anything but flawless, but when the voters shoot themselves individually in the foot, it makes the electoral process looks like the Boston Tea Party.

In my opinion, many voters in some developing countries stay away from run-off elections because their 100 percent enthusiasm and excitement during the first round election drop down to less than five percent because run-offs are foreign and are not fully understood; moreover, voters believe run-offs will not change the original result.

The voting process is not the many hours voters stand on lines at scarce voting polls to cast their votes; rather, it is the many months of preparation and voters education organized by the Sierra Leone National Electoral Commission and the various political parties leading to the casting of the correctly filled out ballots on election day.

The contestant who will lose the election should accept the result and take it in stride and prepare his team for a better showing the next time around and should not hold grudge for his own poor showing against his opponent to have won the race.

The contestant who will win the election should honor his campaign promises to the people and should consider his opponent as a partner in the nation building process. The winner must develop a new mindset as to the outcome of the result; that is, he won the election but he did not defeat his opponent. An election is not a battle in which the terms victor and defeat are the norms; in an election, the terms winner and loser should be the preferred nomenclatures. If the participants consider the usage of winner and loser, animosity and grudge will not prevail between opponents and civility will certainly be the hallmark of the exercise.

After a fairly smooth first round election, it is heart breaking to witness the outbreak of violence between opposition party supporters whilst awaiting the run-off presidential election. There were errors during the first round election and I hope the Sierra Leone National Electoral Commission learnt their lessons to correct the many errors that frustrated and disfranchised tens of thousands of voters on Election Day.

From where I sit, I urge my brethren of Sierra Leone to turn out in full to the limited polling stations provided by the Sierra Leone National Electoral Commission on Saturday, September 8, 2007 and perform your civic duty by casting your votes, and not to subscribe to violence, mayhem and even death; furthermore, not to rob your Muslim brothers and sisters of Ramadan which is right around the corner, because when all is said and done, in the grand scheme of things, nothing will really change in that country – Sa Leone.

I admonish you to take heart and reflect on these parables, HOWεVA TIN TRANGGA TETE, I DE DכN; IF YU WANT כL, YU DE LכS כL and NכTO εVRI DE NA KRISMES. It is my wish that when you enter the secret sanctuaries to cast your votes on Election Day on Saturday, one sacred thought that should cloud your minds should be the first stanza of the National Anthem.

“High we exalt thee, realm of the free;
Great is the love we have for thee;
Firmly united ever we stand,
Singing thy praise, O native land.
We raise up our hearts and our voices on high,
The hills and the valleys re-echo our cry;
Blessing and peace be ever thine own,
Land that we love, our Sierra Leone.”