Electoral commission receives final rosters

Sierra Leone's Chief Electoral Commissioner, Walter Nicol, said on Tuesday that he had begun receiving names of voters who registered last, from provincial areas following the closure of the extended registration period last week.

"Voter registration closed on the night of the 24 April," Nicol told IRIN. He said that a helicopter was in the process of returning rosters but it was too early to know how many people had registered. The deadline had been extended to allow returnees to register and exercise their voting rights.

The UN refugee agency reported on Friday that it had increased the number of its weekly overland return convoys from Guinea and Liberia to six the previous week to accommodate some 2,300 Sierra Leoneans returning weekly ahead of the 14 May general elections. The convoys would continue until 6 May, UNHCR said, adding that all organised returns would be put on hold during the election period but were expected to resume after the 14 May polls.

More than 13,000 Sierra Leonean refugees in camps in the Kissidougou area of southeastern Guinea have registered to return but some have said they would do so at a later date. UNHCR began using land routes for repatriation from Guinea in late March. Earlier return movements had been by boat from the Guinean capital, Conakry, to Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, or were spontaneous returnees on foot.

A decade of civil war in Sierra Leone sent some 150,000 people fleeing to neighbouring Guinea and Liberia. Since December 2001, shortly before the official end of the war, more than 60,000 have been assisted to return, UNHCR said.