Carlijn van Esch

This morning, I received the EU Election Observation Mission’s Final Report on the Sierra Leone General Elections 2023. I shared with the Chief Observer and her team my initial thoughts on the report. In my view, the report is skewed more towards a political understanding of the elections rather than a technical understanding. The expectation of this report is for it to be technically sound in order to help improve future elections through identifying key institutional, legal and operational lapses. However, it is filled with normative assertions and very limited electoral analysis. The myriad of inconsistencies and lack of clear evidence risk undermining the quality of the report. How do you interpret assertions such as “divisive online communication… created insecurity for rural voters”? How do you explain the technical value of the report when four out of the seven priority recommendations are political in nature? With my previous experience and knowledge in the organisation of elections in Africa and Europe, I have had the opportunity to work closely with several institutions, including the EU. I believe that EU Election Observation Missions can do better, particularly in producing high quality reports that are rooted in sound technical and analytical understanding of elections. We thank the EU Election Observation Mission for their efforts, and I look forward to continuing our engagement with the European Union to strengthen the electoral system in Sierra Leone.