May 5th , 2023 
  
Dear Sir/Madam, 
 
It's crucial to record, manage and preserve election data digitally. I am introducing the Sierra Leone Open Election Data Platform (SLOEDP), available at https://electiondata.io. A digital product that collects, aggregates, digitize, clean, transform, visualize, share, and opens election data." It has significant historical and research value. 

I request that you join us in encouraging ECSL to start following the nine principles of open election data (timely, granular(by polling centre/station, ward, constituency, district, region), available for free on the internet, complete and in bulk, analyzable (not PDF), non-proprietary, non-discriminatory, license-free, and permanently available. 

In the interest of transparency and accountability, SLOEDP follows the National Democracy Institute's nine "open election data" principles. We rely on credible election data, and ECSL is the primary source for such data.  SLOEDP was first used successfully in 2018, and we plan to use it to monitor, observe and report on the upcoming elections. We believe this platform can significantly enhance transparency and accountability in the electoral processes and complement your digital publishing efforts. 
 
The platform will provide real-time and open access to data on voter activities, candidate activities, boundaries, calendar of events, and results using data published by ECSL, NEW, together with citizen-generated data and other election bodies in Sierra Leone and abroad. Our platform also monitors violence in elections, particularly against women. Additionally, the platform will allow citizens to engage and participate in the democratic process beyond just voting.  Promoting civic engagement has merit. 
 
Ensuring that the elections are free, fair, and transparent and that all stakeholders widely accept results should be imperative to ECSL today. Like 2018, we request that you help us encourage the ECSL to consider collaborating with us by sharing data using the nine principles of open election data on ec.gov.sl or establish a data repository where we can collect timely data in bulk for use by our platform. 


You can download (https://bit.ly/sloedp-chapter) our book chapter on Open Data and records management to learn more. We created peace message illustrations that are also available for download (https://bit.ly/sloedp-peace) 

Upon request, our team can provide more information on the platform, including technical specifications and user manuals. We are also happy to assist with implementing and deploying the platform should you decide to adopt it. 
 
Thank you for considering our request. We look forward to your response.