The Acting Executive Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Sierra Leone, Mr. Michael v.d. Schulenburg, has described Saturday council polls in the country as “orderly and peaceful” and congratulated the people of Sierra Leone for the successful conduct of the elections.
According to a statement issued here Monday, “He (the Representative) is pleased to observe that polling for the elections of Saturday 5 July were generally conducted in a peaceful and orderly manner.”
The statement said further: “With only a few exceptions, polling centres opened at the designated time and Sierra Leoneans were able to exercise their franchise”.
The UN envoy also congratulated the National Electoral Commission, the Political Parties Registration Commission, the Sierra Leone Police as well other institutions associated with the process for their ”tireless efforts in ensuring the proper conduct of the elections”.
Mr. Schulenburg recalled that Sierra Leone set very high standards in the international community with the exemplary conduct of the 2007 presidential and parliamentary elections.
In that regard, he called on Sierra Leoneans to ensure that subsequent electoral processes, including the counting, collation and certification of the election results, are finalised without rancor and that any dispute which might arise is resolved within the bounds of the law. Panapress .
