DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL AFFAIRS, RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION

Legal Affairs, Research and Documentation Department
The Department of Legal Affairs, Research and Documentation, manages all legal activities, research and documentation of the Commission. It ensures custody of the archives of the Commission.

Key Activities
Electoral Law Reform

• Conducted reform workshop at British Council from 29th -31st March 2011;
• Facilitated the working sessions of the Technical Committee that was established to reform Sierra Leone’s Elections Laws;
• Prepared reports on the status of the Legal Reform;
• Printed and distributed copies of the technical committee reports and draft bill on ‘public elections’.

Legal Affairs

• Employed three new Legal Retainers and a Legal Secretary;
• Facilitated the attendance of court cases both in Freetown and the provinces. In all, there were seventeen cases in the High Courts, three in the Appeal Court and one in the Supreme Court.

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)

• The National Electoral Commission during the year under review, prepared a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with the Electoral Commission of Ghana for some staff members to undertake a study tour in the following priority areas:
• Resource Centre Archiving
• Documentation
• Adobe Audition for Audio Editing
• Audio-visual Techniques: video converter, avid express etc
• Research and Monitoring
• Complaint and Litigation issues

Research and DocumentatioN

• Inaugurated the NEC Resource Centre to facilitate education and capacity building;
• Received in-kind gifts and donations From USAID and later from the EU to the Library.