Officers should not jubilate over election results
The role of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) in providing security on polling day November 17th 2012 elections has been lauded as no tension was mounted at the polling centres other than a few isolated incidents that came up during the voting process at a few centres in the country.
Despite his call that police officers should not be involved in political rallies before and after elections, Inspector General of Police, Francis Alieu Munu made a clarion call to police officers not to dance openly on the announcement of results as he recalled that the SLP had been criticized previously on the allegation that police officers danced openly while in uniform when the APC was announced winner of the 2007 presidential election. According to I.G. Munu, the police can only jubilate over the successful manner the elections went on and not over the victory of any political party.
Speaking on the IRN (Independent Media Commission), I.G. Munu also called on the public to avoid provocation and confrontation, noting that the SLP is set to handle post election anxiety disorders. He said police presence is still felt around the polling centres whose ballot boxes have not been delivered to NEC unto press time yesterday.
Munu added that they will announce a stand down for officers to back off after ensuring that the entire activities are concluded successfully. However, IG Munu has gallantly defended the force as being neutral so far, describing it as being rated one of the world’s best in terms of its success in reducing the country’s crime rate.
In another development, IRN provisional results for polling centre 14140, station 05 are as follows
PROVISIONAL RESULTS – Center: 1440, Polling 5
Presidential:
APC-228, CDP-0, NDA-0, PDP-0, PLP- 0, PMDC-2, RUFP-1, SLPP-104, UDM-0, UNPP-1 Void vote-11Mayoral:
APC-213, CDP-0, NDA-2, PDP-0, PLP-0, PMDC-4, RUFP-0, SLPP-103, UDM-O, UNPP-0 Void votes-4Void votes: a total number of 33 void votes were cast. No misplaced ballots in that ward as the screenings were transparent with local observers present.
NEC Polling Station Queue Controllers at the commencement of the process at 7: 00AM misdirected the voters to the wrong queue and this made a few voters unsatisfied but they bore the challenge and cast their ballots later on. At this polling station, voting started thirty minutes after the stipulated time.
By Ilyasa Baa
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