National Election Watch (NEW) CIVIC EDUCATION CAMPAIGN FOR SIERRA LEONE

Baseline - the sample Using purposive sampling we targeted young people between the ages of 16 – 35 years. We were looking for three categories of people, economically active, politically active and those who haven’t had the chance to go to school. 51% should be females and 49% should be male which is the same as the national data 51% women and 49% male Mainly peri urban youth

This is what we got

And some of the findings Election Participation by Women Voted in elections The pie chart on the left shows the numbe of people who voted in the elections On the right is the  Significantly Below Average (less than 85% of national average)  Below Average (85%-95% of national)  Average (95%-105% of national)  Above Average (105%-115%)  Significantly Above Average (greater than 115% of national)

And ……………. At the national level 62.68% of respondents are not members of any political party, while 36.55% of respondents were members of political parties

And …. At national level about 30% of women are members of political parties and about 70% are not members of political parties By the end of this meeting each district should have an activity plan to show how the campaign will roll out

For access to information… 85% of respondents revealed that radio was the predominant way to access information during elections, followed by word of mouth 44.45% and meetings 32.66%. Female respondents sought out information through the same sources as men.

Paying taxes? 83% of the respondents paid taxes whilst 16% did not. The main reasons for not paying taxes were that they were either below the age of payment of taxes (i.e. <18 yrs), their husbands did not pay for them, they did not have money to pay taxes because they were unemployed or were still in schooling therefore cannot afford to pay. Mainly this is paying of local tax!

Leadership qualities having connections to enhance development (>40%), some amount of money (<45%) and should have power (>8%).

And corruption . . . Majority of all respondents (81%) responded that they don’t report corrupt practices in their communities while 18% responded that they have reported corrupt practices at some point. Same for women and men

Membership of political parties 30 % are members and 60 are non members

Expected services from gov’t? 68% of the respondents highlighted roads as key among services expected from the government followed by 68% of education and 63% for health care. For the taxpaying respondents, 70% highlighted roads, 68% education, 65% health care 53% water supply, 45% employment creation for citizens as expected services from the government. For the women respondents 69% highlighted educations as priority service to be delivered by government, 65% for development of road networks, 61% for health care. This shows that the sequence of which women want service delivered is slightly different from the trend the general respondents highlighted.

Afraid during elections? This shows at national level, 61.31% of the respondents said they are afraid during elections, whilst 31.70% agreed that they are not afraid during elections.

Even party members are afraid … at national level 54% of the respondents that were political party members disclosed that they were afraid, 34% were not afraid and 10% never responded

And at district level …..

To sum up major findings Lack of knowledge on why to vote (not how to vote) needs to be addressed through effective education strategies Radio is seen as best way to reach target populations (both in urban and rural areas) Elections seen as best method in selecting representative in government Communication and consultation from District Council’s is essential to ensure involvement and accountability Preferred leadership qualities are known, yet are not seen as reasons to vote for a candidate

Governance of Political parties and their guiding rules 45% of all the respondents have knowledge that there are rules to guide the conduct of campaigns in elections, while 54% of respondents do not have knowledge about the rules guiding campaigns during elections.

Governance of Political parties and their guiding rules 69% of the respondents who said they belonged to political parties confirmed that they had knowledge of the rules guiding political campaigns during elections while 29% denied having any knowledge.