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| Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma |
Sierra Leone’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) has calmed fears over reports of the disappearance of huge data that could disenfranchise hundreds of registered voters in next year’s General Election.
The Commission, while admitting the incident, assured that it had the capability of rectifying the error it blames on faulty machines and computer chips.
Chief Electoral Commissioner Mohamed N’fa Alie Conteh, in a statement, assured that they would ensure that all eligible voters were able to cast their ballots.
It was thought that data for about 30,000 people were missing, causing jittery in the opposition parties.
Biometric exercise
Thursday was the deadline for the publication of the final voter register to fulfill a constitutional requirement for the March 7, 2018 voting date to hold.
According to the NEC records, a total of 3,178,663 people were registered in the first ever biometric exercise in the country earlier this year.
It also details the total number of voters per district and region, and shows that the eastern region accounts for 631,989 voters; northern region 541,949; northwestern 490, 606; southern 624, 822 and western region 889,297.
NEC said the total figure took account of the missing data.
