Freetown, 25 September, 2022 / 9:07 pm (ACI Africa).
The development and humanitarian arm of the Catholic Archdiocese of Freetown in Sierra Leone is calling on law enforcement agencies in the West African nation to start working to boost the confidence of the people in the agencies ahead of the country’s general election that is scheduled to be held in June 2023.
In his keynote address at a police and youth dialogue session that brought together young people from Sierra Leone’s Western Area Rural District, Caritas Freetown Executive Director, Fr. Peter Konteh, presented a set of proposals to tame violent activities during the country’s electioneering period, including the need for the authorities to work on trust issues among the electorate.
“We need to identify gaps and risk factors in the elections process that have the potential to generate a violent conflict. Let’s address all trust issues and public confidence in the Sierra Leone police to provide an election security strategy, which is based on a stable law and order environment in the entire country,” Fr. Konteh said.
The Tuesday, September 20 dialogue session also brought together representatives from Sierra Leone’s police department, the Western Area Rural District Electoral Commission, the Western Area Rural District Youth Council, and representatives from the Motor Bike Riders Union in the region.
Participants at the dialogue engaged broadly on the theme, “Preventing and Managing Violent Election-related Conflict between the SLP/OSD (police) and the Youth”.