Idrissa Kamara, a district electoral officer in Sierra Leone, begins by identifying his responsibilities at the National Electoral Commission.  He explains that the biggest challenges of the 2007 presidential election were to earn public acceptance of the electoral process and its results.  He stresses the importance of having an independent electoral commission that is not indebted to the government, and he identifies the complications that ensue when funding comes from the government and the international community.  Kamara promotes development of human capacity of administrators and the public, which he notes is cheaper than importing international advisers.  He also supports the inclusion of stakeholders so Sierra Leonean people can take ownership of their elections.  Kamara details important parts of the process of holding Sierra Leonean elections, including delimiting constituencies and allocating seats, hiring and training electoral staff, avoiding violence and voter fraud, registering voters, and processing complaints.  He then ventures into the topic of family voting, laments that people vote for candidates from their home region who speak the same language as they do, and discusses how to sensitize voters and shift the focus towards issues.