Subject: It looks like Prophet Jonah has Failed Us!!
My sources in Freetown tell me that as far as Registration is concerned
Jonah has woefully failed Salone. The Displaced in Refugee Camps are very eager to sell their voter id cards to the political party who pays the highest. So far, PDP, PNC and APC are reported to be the culprits in this game. Also, there is supposed to be lamination of the cards and pictures of the registered voter as recommended by the International Foundation for Election Systems. As it now stands, the space for the picture is left quite blank. NO PICTURE TO IDENTIFY. Even worse, the voter should sign\thumbprint the card in the presence of the registrar; this is not being done all the time. None of this has been done.
In fact, 'card' is wrong. What the registered are being given is a piece of weak flimsy paper. Nothing special or electronic about it. One was sent to me by a cousin of mine who says he has 6 of them. He got 6 by being in different places on different days. Today he would be at the Clay Factory Displaced Camp and be registered there, In the afternoon at our uncle's house at Fourah Bay where he would be registered again etc etc. Because of how flimsy these slips are, people easily misplace them. If you do not misplace them, it might be stolen and sold to the highest bidder. Usually PDP & APC!
Another problem why the registration has been a failure is that theregistrars usually only call after all the adults have gone to work, ie: after 8\9a.m in the morning. The man also is insisting that the full voter list would only be hung for 5days after which no petitions/objections to names would be looked into. As of now, he has still not registered a large # of people in Freetown which is relatively safe and he has doubly, 'triply', 'quadriply' registered another large #. As for Upline, his registration prowess is practically nil in some districts, especially Moyamba. In the East & South, rebels chase & capture registrars regularly.
Even though the new NPRC has sacked all NUP politicians in Govt as they had earlier done to Abass Bundu, people are still going to cry foul with the results come Feb '96 because of Jonah's botches!!.
For his failures, he is now blaming the International Community. The new NPRC has given him full mandate to go on & conduct Elections so he cannot prophecy any more DANGERS if Elections do not take place!!! But from what I see It looks like with the RUF saying No Elections, the donors, International Community saying no to donations and the LARGE number of displaced and poor folks selling\misplacing their id slips, Jonah has failed Salone with respect to Elections!!!!.
Where next Salone?
MUMU GAINS!!