The West African Elders’ Forum (WAEF) has deployed a pre-election fact-finding mission to Sierra Leone, ahead of the country’s general elections scheduled for June 2023.
The WAEF team which is led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo also has former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice President of The Gambia, Fatoumata Tambajang as members.
They would be interfacing with major political leaders and other key stakeholders in Sierra Leone as a means of deepening the confidence and trust of the citizens in the electoral process.
The two-day mission in support of inclusive and peaceful general elections began on Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
Members of the missions would hold consultations with the country’s political actors and stakeholders, including the civil society and the Diplomatic Corps, the Electoral Management Bodies and Agencies in a bid to ascertain the level of preparedness towards conducting free, fair and credible elections.
A statement from the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, hosts of WAEF, stressed that the Mission to Sierra Leone is in line with the Forum’s objective of promoting preventive diplomacy as a means of reducing electoral-related tension and violence in Africa.
WAEF was founded in 2020 to promote peace, democracy and good governance, and had carried out preventive diplomacy missions to many countries including Gambia and Nigeria.
Beyond its engagements in Sierra Leone, WAEF is scheduled to carry out a similar mission to Liberia, two nations that hold general elections in 2023.
Soon after the February 25, 2023, Presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria, WAEF deployed a team of former Presidents to hold consultations with some of the presidential candidates and other key stakeholders, taking to them the message of peace in order to ensure that there was no post-election violence in the country.
Sierra Leone’s 2023 elections will be the country’s sixth democratic election and the fifth since the end of the civil war in 2002.
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