-NEC discloses
By Jerromie S. Walters
With less than 7 days to Liberia’s October 10, 2023, legislative and presidential elections, the National Elections Commission (NEC) says preparations for a successful
conduct of the elections are progressing well.
At a recent press conference, NEC Boss- Madam DavidettaBrowne Lansanah reiterated the Commission’s commitment to ensuring that the elections are conducted in a transparent and credible manner.
With specific emphasis on significant preparation for the pending elections- Madam Lansanah disclosed that the encrypted Final Registration Roll for the 10 October 2023 General Elections is being distributed to the political parties as we speak. “As of 29 September 2023, political party representatives have been coming to the commission and have received their copies of the Final Registration Roll. This process is ongoing.”
In order to further enhance the Commission’s hallmark of transparency during
the result tally process, the NEC says it has purchased 61 laptops, 59 Projectors, and 59 Projector stands for tally of the results of the 2023 General Elections. “These
2 materials are being deployed across the 19 magisterial areas in the 15 counties
for the tally of election results.”
Also, NEC confirmed that deployment of electoral materials in preparation for the 10 October polls is well on course. “As at the close of the 2nd of October 2023, the NEC has deployed materials to 11 of the 15 counties covering the following magisterial areas: Sinoe, Maryland, Grand Kru, River Gee, River Cess, Grand Gedeh, Lower Lofa, Upper
Lofa, Lower Nimba, Upper Nimba, Gbarpolu, Grand Capemount, Lower Bong,
and Upper Bong. Materials for the remaining four counties including Montserrado, Bomi, Grand Bassa and Margibi are being packaged and
deployment begins this week.”
Consistent with its commitment, the Commission saysordered the reprint of the ballot papers for electoral district 1 of Margibi County due to an error where a political party’s initial was placed under the logo of an independent candidates, Mr. Jomah Samuels. “The error has since been corrected and the ballots reprinted in Ghana arrived yesterday and are expected to be delivered to the NEC Central Warehouse today.”
It has also been made known that training for temporary staff for the 10 October polls is going as planned. “Thefollowing categories and number of staff have completed their training across the country: 79 Electoral District Coordinators, 382 Electoral Supervisors, 5,890 Presiding Officers, and 5,890 Voter Identification Officers. Training of the other temporary staff will begin soon.”
Moreover, NEC says the accreditation of agents of political parties and independent candidates is ongoing. “The Commission urges political parties and independent candidates to visit the NEC Political Affairs Office to complete their agents’ accreditation
process.”
Under the ECOWAS electoral support project, the National Elections Commission (NEC) revealed that four (4) vehicles, 31 rugged laptop computers and 20 printers have been purchased for the 2023 General Elections. “These items will be formally presented to the NEC in the coming days.”
“During last week’s press briefing, there were three outstanding issues:
a) Mr. Victor W. Wreh, who was an aspirant of Electoral District 3, Montserrado
County during the nomination process, made an inquiry about a matter
concerning his application for nomination. His request to be heard was
granted by the Political Affairs Section and the NEC Legal Coordinator. He
was encouraged to formalize his concerns for discussion after he failed to
adequately respond by evidence to the nomination checklist. To date, he has
forwarded a communication on this matter to the NEC. It must be noted that
while the Commission will grant him audience, he cannot be qualified as a
candidate after the end of the nomination process.”
She continues, “b) On the question of attempted hacking during the Lofa Senatorial By-election and what measures the Commission took to address it, the Justice Ministry
and NEC had a conversation to the effect of increasing security of NEC
website, which the NEC complied with. c) On the question of “increasing the number of registrants on the FinalRegistration Roll”, there was no increase in the figure of which is 2,471,617 after it was announced. The Commission announced the preliminary
outcomes of the number of registrants at the time of processing the data from
the first and second phases of the collation of the numbers. At that time, the
figures announced were work in progress that after deduplication and
adjudication the Commission announced the Final Registration Roll of
2,471,617 eligible voters for the 10 October 2023 Elections.”
At the same time- Madam Madam Davidetta Browne Lansanah articulated, “Members of the press, as you are aware, election security is the responsibility of
the government. As such, the Commission continues to work the joint security in
finalizing security arrangements for the 10 October 2023 General Elections. Let
me use this medium to thank the Ministry of Justice and the security apparatus
for providing security to the Commission since the beginning of the electoral
process.”
