The National Elections Commission (NEC) says it will use the national identification card commonly referred to as “Citizen ID Card”, passport, birth certificate and traditional method to verify citizenship of registrants during the voter registration exercise as required by law.
The NEC it intends to confirm registrant’s citizenship or Liberian nationality and not to be used as voters’ card on Election Day of Tuesday, October 10, 2023, besides the voters’ card that will be issued by the Commission.
NEC’s Chairperson Davidetta Browne-Lansannah told the media yesterday in Monrovia that voters’ registration cards issues by the Commission will be the authorized document that will be used during elections exercises and not the national identification card, passport, birth certificate and traditional method as insinuated by some political detractors.
Madam Browne-Lassannah clarified that the commission is using those instruments to only confirm one citizenship during registration process as required per the electoral law of the country which it continues to uphold.
On Thursday, December 15, 2022, the commission shall begin a 3-weeks voter’s registration exercise nationwide as part of the activities ahead of the presidential and legislative elections next year.
Madam Browne-Lansanah disclosed that of the government has provided US$10 million of the proposed US$20 million budget to conduct the registration exercise in December of this year.
She added that there would be 2,080 registration centers that would be housed in private and public structures across the country.
“The assessment shall inform the commission whether those structures are in good shape or not because they were last used during the October 2017 general elections and we don’t know how they are now,” Browne-Lansanah noted.
She believes that community-based organizations with cells could be used to carried out the voters’ registration exercise in the 73 electoral districts throughout the country doing the period under review.
Speaking on the use of the biometric voter registration system, the NEC boss asserted that the globally countries are transitioning their electoral system to digital systems from the manual program as such, Liberia is not exempted.
She said initially the commission proposed US$91 million to the government for the conduct of the entire electoral process but regrettably, when the budget was scrutinized by the national legislature, it narrowed down to US$61 million.
Meanwhile, one of the opposition political parties, The Liberian People’s Party (LPP), is opposing the use of the biometric system during the pending presidential and legislative elections come next year.
In a letter addressed to the NEC dated September 22, the LPP said it opposes the use of biometric voter registration for the 2023 presidential and legislative elections due to the inadequate preparation on the part of the commission.
It stressed that the 2023 general elections cannot and should not be a pilot project, adding, “We also know that elections are held only in a day’s time.”
LPP noted that Liberians cannot afford to take a gamble with the 2023 presidential and legislative elections because the stake could never be higher.
The party is of the view that in order to introduce a biometric system of voter registration in Liberia’s electoral process, adequate preparations have to be made which entails the training of NEC staff, political parties’ technicians, and massive awareness among the population about the new technology.
With the above, the party continued the NEC would then try the new system as a pilot in a by-election to build confidence in the system.
