Sierra Leone: top UN envoy welcomes successful local elections
6 July 2008 - The top United Nations envoy to Sierra Leone today congratulated the people of the West African nation for
yesterday's successful local council elections.
In a statement issued in the capital Freetown, the Secretary-General's Acting Executive Representative Michael
Schulenburg said that he is "is pleased to observe that polling for the elections of Saturday 5 July were generally
conducted in a peaceful and orderly manner."
Further, he said that aside from a few exceptions, polling centres opened on time and that Sierra Leoneans were able to
exercise their right to vote.
Mr. Schulenburg lauded the National Electoral Commission, the Political Parties Registration Commission, the Sierra
Leone Police and other institutions for their work in making sure the elections were conducted properly.
The Representative noted that the country - was wracked by a prolonged civil war during most of the 1990s - set very
high standards globally with the "exemplary conduct" of last year's elections. He called on Sierra Leoneans to "ensure
that subsequent electoral processes, including the counting, collation and certification of the election results, are
finalized without rancour and that any dispute which might arise is resolved within the bounds of the law."
ENDS