Good morning.

Welcome to the press conference of the European Union’s Election Observation Mission to these Sierra Leonean elections.

My name is Richard Howitt, EU Chief Observer in charge of our mission of 100 observers from 27 European countries.  We have been in all 14 districts of the country since September. On polling day on Saturday we were in more than 90 per cent of the constituencies.

I am happy to be joined on this front table by Deputy Chief Observer Tania Marques on my left, by the Mission’s Media Adviser Javier Guttierrez on my right and by Mariya Gabriel who has led a delegation of four MEP colleagues who have joined our work this week.

You will find a seven-page preliminary assessment of the elections drawn up by the European Union Observer Mission distributed immediately following this press conference.  In it you will be able to read some of the comments I will be making now in greater detail.  I would also stress that this is a preliminary assessment and that after the elections have reached their final conclusion, we will provide our own final report on a future occasion which will contain much more detailed recommendations based on the observations we have conducted.

Of course I want to place on record my deep thanks to the EU’s observers and to our Mission team for their dedication to their work.

Let me now go on to introduce what we have to say in our assessment today.

I begin by saying to all the Sierra Leonean guests how much we are enjoying working in your country.  We thank you for the warm welcome you have given us.  We are observers and we do not seek to influence your choice.  But we have come sharing many of your hopes for a successful election.  Sharing common principles to which our countries have committed ourselves to honour democratic elections. And recognizing with proper humility - as many of the people of Sierra Leone have told us - that our presence helps give them confidence in the election.  I promise you we have done our work seriously to uphold that confidence you place in us.

And as soon as we have possibly been able to do so after polling day, I want to congratulate the citizens of Sierra Leone who, on election day, came out in big numbers to vote in a largely peaceful atmosphere, demonstrating their enthusiasm for the process and their commitment to democracy.

Congratulations.

So what is our preliminary assessment?

We say: This was a peaceful and well-conducted election.

Peaceful. There was a widespread fear of violence.  There were some small-scale isolated incidents.  But the campaign and polling day itself were largely calm and peaceful.  However as the results become known, we know that security remains a key challenge.

Well-conducted.  From the 404 polling stations we visited in all parts of the country for voting itself, in no less than 95 per cent can we report that the procedures were all properly followed. Polling staff understood their job. And voters appeared not to be confused by the difficulties of taking part in four different elections at once. It is still early to comment on the tally. But initial reports suggest the integrity of the process is being sufficiently protected.

Of course there were shortcomings on the day and before. Some of these were caused by the limited space and the long queues. But these might be said to have resulted from the high turnout. We do think the tally procedures could have been made public earlier.  And we do regret the decision to raise nomination fees which we regard as unreasonably high, and which for some time threatened a boycott until a compromise solution was found.  Nevertheless overall we are pleased to assess that so far the National Election Commission, the NEC, has been independent and impartial.

The introduction of biometric voter registration has been a notable achievement of this election compared to the last.  And together with the outstanding work of the National Election Watch domestic observers, we share the pride of many local people we have met that this has been a truly Sierra Leonean-led election.

To the political parties, the campaign calendar imposed obligations on you which were not always met, and burdens of travel not least on the flag-bearers themselves which were very difficult.  We welcome the continuous messages of non-violence but noted several instances of abusive language during campaign rallies.  We hope that parties will ensure all their supporters keep to the commitments made to non-violence as the results become known – the winners as well as the losers.

My hope is that the elections can continue to be well-conducted and that integrity can be maintained, so there is full confidence in and peaceful acceptance of the outcome.

Ladies and gentlemen.

There were shortcomings in these elections and we hope that by being honest in reporting them we give credibility to our own assessment – the positive as well as the negative.

What are some examples of the shortcomings?

First, there was a failure of voter education.  Significantly more civic voter education over a substantially longer period was needed to guarantee the right to an informed choice for voters.

Second, the bringing together in to a single electoral law was an improvement, but represents only very partial progress towards necessary legal and constitutional reform.

Third, the fact there was no increase at all in the number of women nominated as candidates does represent a failure of political will by the parties to meet the commitments they made on gender equality.

Fourth, we observed some Paramount Chiefs appearing to break their declaration of neutrality, or being put under pressure to do so.

Fifth, disputes around the nomination process were unable to be resolved by the courts in a timely manner where we conclude there was excessive judicial delay.

Seventh, we observed very low levels of campaigning by a large number of the registered political parties, and that their ability to compete in the election might be said to have been impaired.

Eighth, this may at least partly be explained by the fact that unequal access to resources clearly affected the campaign. In addition, we found a blurred separation between governing party resources and state resources, and we observed the distribution of money in three areas.

And in relation to public and private media, overall we found that there was unbalanced coverage towards the ruling party. Although we did conclude reasonable opportunity was provided for other political parties.

Put together, these last two points do mean that the EU Electoral Observation Mission concludes that there was an unequal playing field at this election.

However the EU preliminary assessment records that so far in this election there has been respect for freedom of speech, freedom of movement and for the principle of universal suffrage.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to stress that we recognize the enormous challenges facing Sierra Leone and the daily challenges in the lives of many of the people of this country.

I want to remind you that the European Union itself emerged from war, and that Europe’s commitment to our own democracy is because it has entrenched peace for the peoples of our continent.

We know that many of you in Sierra Leone want to move on.

And we understand that these elections come at an important moment in the history of this country.

And our findings suggest these elections do themselves represent an important moment for embedding the democracy of this country.

Our findings are that the conduct of these elections has been conducive to democratic consolidation.

That means it is possible but it is not yet certain.

And we suggest that further progress will depend not simply in meeting the challenges of the successful completion of the electoral process, but in the will of the institutions of Sierra Leone to address the shortcomings in the country of which many of you will know well, but some of which we report to you today.

We wish you well and we thank-you.