IFES will hold a retreat for Sierra Leone's National Election Commission to assess the 2007 vote.
Sierra Leone’s National Electoral Commission savored the success of its work organizing the 2007 elections and looked for areas of improvement at a retreat organized by IFES January 9-11. Some 60 electoral staff from around the country took part in the three-day retreat in Freetown. At the retreat, participants examined issues such as the voter register, election security, voter education and boundary delimitation. NEC head Christiana Thorpe said the retreat gave her staff a chance to “step back from normal activities and zoom into what has been happening in order to move forward with better direction.” The NEC is preparing for Sierra Leone’s first parliamentary bi-elections in March as well as local government elections in July. The retreat, part of IFES’ electoral assistance project in Sierra Leone, was co-funded by Irish Aid and the United States Agency for International Development.