NEC data centre

These were the exact words of the Chief Electoral Commissioner/ Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) Dr. Christiana A. M. Thorpe while addressing the press and other stakeholders at NEC national data centre, Wellington over the weekend.

Dr. Thorpe went on to say that to date, the commission has completed the uploading and extraction of data captured from the field between 23^rd January and 25^th March, 2012 and that 99% of these have been fed to the data centre server.

“The consolidated data have been set to undergo duplicate analysis and biometric matching and printing of ID cards. These activities have been outsourced to Zetes, a reputable service provider in Belgium and the UK,” she said.

In his explanation about The De-Duplication Process, Commissioner Stephen Aiah Mattia said ”this is the process by which each voter’s fingerprints will be compared against all other fingerprints on the Voter Registration database. This means that the 2,701, 299 provisional figure provided by NEC will be multiplied by two giving a total of 5,402,598 fingerprints which will be compared against each other.”

He went on to say that the de-Duplication is necessary because the BVR kits used during the exercise were not networked. Therefore, while it was possible to detect people who attempted to register more than one in the same BVR kit, it was not possible to detect anyone who registered in a different BVR kit while the registration was on.

Officially opening the NEC National Data Centre, Commissioner for the Western area National Commission for Democracy (NCD) Madam Georgette De Marke said NEC has fulfilled the electrical mandate based on the 2012 electoral act. She commend the Chairperson and the entire staff for their relentless effort  in making sure that Sierra Leone once again hold a peaceful and readable elections this year.

She called on the government and donor partners to give their support for the timely completion of the regional data center before the start of the exhibition process as the national center was done on time.

She made this remarks at NEC headquarters on Tuesday 13th March 2012 while addressing journalists.

According to Dr. Thorpe all the Exhibition centers will be opened simultaneously. “Persons who have registered should endeavor to keep their registration slips safe in order to be able to collect their voters ID cards during the Exhibition period,” she said.

Though the exhibition is expected to take place in June this year, Dr. Thorpe however did not state the specific date  when the process will begin but said NEC will announce it to the public when they are ready.

Currently NEC is conducting phase four of the Biometric Voter Registration and promised that the commission will recoup the number of days lost as attached.

“This is to ensure that there will be no need to extend the Biometric Voter Registration period beyond the 25th March, 2012,” she said.

She disclosed further that the Commission investigated allegation from political parties and the media about registration of ineligible applicants from Gendema, Pujehun District and the came up with the following findings:

“Sierra Leonean citizens living in Liberia who presented themselves in voter registration centres with valid Sierra Leonean documents were registered. Registration staff rejected applicants from Liberia who could not prove their Sierra Leonean citizenship. It was confirmed that irate youths obstructed the registration process on two occasions in Gohun and Gendema respectively.”

She said at no time did NEC officials stop or close registration in voter registration center 12150 in Gendema.

“The poll book clearly indicates the names of people registered on each day during the registration period.”

Divided into the ballot, the certificates of canvass and the election process, InterAksyon probed the various ways cheating was done at that time.

Check out the cheating via

The ballot [http://www.interaksyon.com/hoax-populi-ballot]

The COCs [http://www.interaksyon.com/hoax-populi-coc]

The election process [http://www.interaksyon.com/hoax-populi-election-process]

Lawyer Irene Guevarra, secretary of the Senate Electoral Tribunal, said the fake ballots and COCs were enough to prove there was massive fraud in 2007, although she declined to say who might have been behind the electoral fraud.

On Thursday, the SET made history as it proclaimed Pimentel the duly elected senator over Juan Miguel Zubiri, who had resigned as senator a week earlier.

It is the first time a new official had been proclaimed as a result of the SET findings. Despite the decision, Pimentel has less than a year and 10 months left in his term.

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Imagine a change from the culture of “ayes and nays” that has characterised the voting system of assemblies across the country. Nigerians would certainly be eager to know, without going through the unending labyrinth of bureaucracy, their representative’s attendance ratio, voting records and earnings.

Until 2005, German voters also had to go through a lot of trouble in order to find out such information about their MPs.

In that year Gregor Hackman and his partner Boris Hekele came up with Abgeordnetenwatch or Parliament Watch, an “innovative solution” that was designed to enhance transparency and accountability in German federal and state parliaments. This online platform is run by a small Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) made up of two webdesigners, one online editor and three interns. It also employs about 20 freelancing moderators.

“Abegeordnetenwatch.de enables citizens to ask the right questions and helps you to test how responsive your Members of Parliament are”, Mr. Hackmack told the participants of this year’s IIJ Summer Academy in Hamburg.

In the last six years, the project has grown from being a Hamburg-only platform to covering seven of the 16 German state parliaments, the Bundestag (federal parliament) and German representation in the EU Parliament.

How it works

On the website, citizens can type in their post code and are automatically taken to the profile of their representatives and can post questions to them.

After the question has been checked by one of the moderators to make sure that it is not racist, sexist or inflammatory, Abgeordnetenwatch will forward it to the MP. As soon as he or she replies, the user will be notified via email. Questions and replies are displayed online.

If there was a similar platform in Nigeria, I could, for example, draw the attention of my representative in the state assembly to the neglect of the road I use to travel to work daily. All I would need do is ask the politician online if there are any plans to do something about the state of disrepair of the road. If he or she decides to reply, I will be notified via email. The question and email would be displayed for all to read.

A political bridge

This kind of service would be particularly helpful in Nigeria where legislators have the habit of moving out of their constituencies as soon as they are elected into office. From then on they are completely disconnected from their voters.

Abegeordnetenwatch can also be a useful tool for politicians as they can connect with their constituents.

The website also shows MP’s rate of response as well as monitoring their voting pattern on core policy issues.

The opportunity to broaden transparency and accountability is perhaps the most attractive advantage of such a monitoring project.

The phenomenal growth and popularity of this German organisation in just six years (over 100,000 questions asked so far with an 80% response rate) and it its success in countries like Luxemburg and Ireland is a pointer that it stands a good chance of working in Nigeria.

However, one challenge immediately comes to mind. Nigeria has does not have the same level of internet saturation as Germany, and this would in no small way limit the impact and reach the platform would have.

The videos, which appear to have been taken at night using a mobile phone camera, were reproduced for and given to Lacson by a certain Joel Pinawin, a police officer who claims to have witnessed the switching of election returns during the 2004 polls. The other videos show ballot boxes and election returns, which by law should be inside sealed envelopes inside the ballot boxes; only the canvassers may open the ballot boxes and envelopes.

The videos, which Lacson showed reporters, seem to support the revelations of Senior Superintendent Rafael Santiago Jr. of the Philippine National Police Special Action Forces (PNP-SAF) that he and his men sneaked into the Batasang Pambansa to steal original election returns and replace these with fake ones to ensure the win of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

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But a private prosecutor in the massacre case says De Lima’s assurances are empty should Ampatuan be accepted as a state witness and enrolled in her department’s Witness Protection Program.

This is because the law, or more specifically, Republic Act 6981, “An Act Providing for a Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Program and for Other Purposes,” a witness placed under the state’s protection program should be immediately taken to a “secure housing facility” until he or she has finished testifying or “until the threat, intimidation or harassment disappears or is reduced to a manageable or tolerable level.”

“The safe house can be anywhere, it can even be in Forbes Park,” private prosecutor Harry Roque said.

Ampatuan could very well invoke this should he be taken into the WPP for the electoral fraud case since he has publicly pointed to his father, Andal Sr., and brother, Andal Jr., who are also accused principals in the massacre case, of being the real masterminds of the mass murder of 58 persons, including 32 media workers.

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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and African leaders like Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki, his Prime Minister Raila Odinga, President Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Jakaya Kiwete of Tanzania were in attendance under a blazing sun as South Sudan President Salva Kiir hosted the noon-hour ceremony.

As reported by Kenya’s Sunday Nation President Salva Kiir Mayardit used the historic occasion of the entry of South Sudan into the world’s community of states to tell his people that they would never again wilfully return to war.
“This is a day that will be forever engraved in our hearts. Citizens in every village and county of South Sudan are celebrating. “We give praise to the Almighty God for making it possible for us to witness this day which we have waited for more than 56 years,” he said.
President Kiir told his war-weary citizens that the new nation, which was home to a conflict that claimed the highest number of civilian casualties since the Second World War, that South Sudan would now be a maker of peace and never a wager of war.
“We will live at peace with our neighbours in the north, east, west and south. We shall be part of endeavours to strive for freedom, dignity and peace.
Read more at the Sunday Nation

And another Kenya’s newspaper, The Standard on Sunday reported thus: a sea of humanity waving miniature flags erupted into delirium to celebrate the birth of a nation, after 21-years of civil war that threatened to throw into uncertainty the future of this oil-rich region.
In an ordinate defiance to Mother Nature, South Sudanese braved the scorching heat and danced, clapped, shouted and beat away drums to mark their secession from the North.
Women clad in South Sudan’s flag wept by the giant statue of liberation hero John Garang De Mabior, some holding bibles and small crosses, invoking God’s name for the blessings of a new baby.

A medley of tunes from all sorts of instruments reflected a poignant frenzy that reached its climax as the country’s flag was hoisted on a 32-metre pole and a three-stanza new anthem sung to signify the birth of the Republic of South Sudan.
Sovereign state
The crowds estimated to be more than 500,000 had trooped to the De Mabior Mausoleum grounds four hours ahead of the ceremony to witness the birth of the world’s newest nation and reflect on the effects the civil war pitting the South against the North; a war triggered by the struggle over control and sharing of resources.
Read the Standard’s version

How the media reported South Sudan’s birth
Sunday Nation
Free at Last: History mad as South Sudan becomes the latest member of family of nations
Standard on Sunday
Ecstacy in Juba as South Sudan joins club of nations
BBC online
South Sudan: World leaders welcome new nation
Leaders across the globe have been sending their congratulations to South Sudan on the day it became the world’s newest nation.
Read more from the BBC

CNN online:
South Sudan Celebrates nationhood
South Sudanese celebrate the birth of their nation
Read more here

New York Times:
After Years of Struggle, South Sudan Becomes a New Nation
JUBA, South Sudan — The celebrations erupted at midnight. Thousands of revelers poured into Juba’s steamy streets in the predawn hours on Saturday, hoisting enormous flags, singing, dancing and leaping on the back of cars.
“Freedom!” they screamed.
A new nation was being born in what used to be a forlorn, war-racked patch of Africa, and to many it seemed nothing short of miraculous. After more than five decades of an underdog, guerrilla struggle and two million lives lost, the Republic of South Sudan, Africa’s 54th state, was about to declare its independence in front of a who’s who of Africa, including the president of the country letting it go: Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, a war-crimes suspect.
Read more at New York Times

That they did so peacefully is a credit to both the North and South Sudanese leadership.
Yet nationhood has come at steep cost: A staggering number of lives lost and people displaced in a 21-year civil war that ended only in 2005. When the assembled presidents and prime ministers board their official planes to return home, the challenges that remain will be daunting indeed
Read more in the link below:

What top leaders said:
US President Barack Obama said in a statement he was “proud to declare that the United States formally recognises the Republic of South Sudan as a sovereign and independent state upon this day, July 9 2011″.

He said: “A proud flag flies over Juba and the map of the world has been redrawn. These symbols speak to the blood that has been spilled, the tears that have been shed, the ballots that have been cast, and the hopes that have been realised by so many millions of people.”

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir attended and called on the US to end sanctions against his country.
In his speech to the independence ceremony, Mr Bashir said: “We congratulate our brothers in the south for the establishment of their new state. We share their joy and celebration. The will of the people of the south has to be respected.”

He added: “We call on US President Barack Obama to deliver on his commitment he announced to lift the unilateral sanctions on Sudan to open to way to normalise his country’s relations with Sudan.”
UK Prime Minister David Cameron issued a statement recognising South Sudan, saying: “This is an historic day, for South Sudan and the whole of Africa.”

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent a telegram of congratulation and China’s special envoy sent President Hu Jintao’s “warmest congratulations”.

South African President Jacob Zuma said: “We have always aspired to witness the dawn of peace, security and stability prevailing in the whole of the Sudan. That dream is coming to fruition.”

Wearing his trademark black cowboy hat, the South’s new President Salva Kiir was sworn in and pledged better times ahead.

He told guests including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton: “Our martyrs did not die in vain… We have waited for more than 56 years for this day. It is a day that will be forever engraved on our hearts and minds.”

“This is a day that will be forever engraved in our hearts. Citizens in every village and county of South Sudan are celebrating.

“We give praise to the Almighty God for making it possible for us to witness this day which we have waited for more than 56 years,” he said.

President Kiir told his war-weary citizens that the new nation, which was home to a conflict that claimed the highest number of civilian casualties since the Second World War, that South Sudan would now be a maker of peace and never a wager of war.

“We will live at peace with our neighbours in the north, east, west and south. We shall be part of endeavours to strive for freedom, dignity and peace.

“Having been at the receiving end of injustice for the better part of our post-colonial history, the people of South Sudan will never accept to be aggressors.

“We have experienced what it is to be a refugee. We hope that this has been our last war and that our people will never have to leave the country to flee from insecurity,” he said.

Kenya’s President mwai Kibaki said: “I urge North and South Sudan to take advantage of the age-old links they have developed as one entity, to nurture close bilateral relations even as they assume separate sovereign identities. “This will no doubt contribute immensely to consolidating stability in the region.”

Snippets from the crowd

“My whole body feels happy,” said George Garang, an English teacher who lost his father, grandfather and 11 brothers in the war.

By sunrise, the crowds were surging through the streets of Juba, the capital, to the government quarter, where the declaration of independence would be read aloud.

Thousands of soldiers lined the freshly painted curbs, tiger patches on their arms, assault rifles in their hands. This new nation is being built on a guerrilla army — the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, whose field commanders are now South Sudan’s political leaders — and the amount of firepower here is unnerving.

By 9 a.m., the sun was dangerous. The faces, necks and arms of the people packed thousands deep around a parade stand built for the occasion were glazed with sweat. A woman abruptly slumped to the dirt and was whisked away.

“She fainted because she’s happy,” said a man in the crowd. “There will be many others today.”
“Our people fought for this day with our blood,” said 14-year-old Samuel Maniak. “This is a great day for all of us.”

Mary Muortat, one of hundreds of former refugees who spent years in exile after their parents were uprooted by the conflict, said citizens of the new nation were not daunted by the task ahead.

“After what we have been through we can no longer be shaken by anything. What others see as insurmountable challenges we view as tasks that are far easier than what we overcame in the past,” she said.

Ms Muortat, who is now a senior government official, is a daughter of Gordon Muortat, one of the founders of the first Anya-Nya war waged by Southern forces in protest at the decision by the British to thrust the North and South together at independence in 1956.

He passed away two years ago but a few other fellow fighters such as Joseph Wagu and Chagai Atem took their place on the podium on Saturday.