Ahead of the Special Senatorial Elections (SSE), National Referendum and the bi-elections in two-counties, political party’s representatives on Wednesday raised serious contentions over the cleansing of the Voter’s Roll, which they claimed, if not handled with care could lead to post elections conflict.
Political party’s representatives’ comments followed the admittance of ECOWAS Technical Team which among other things, admitted that the Voter’s Roll is saturated with duplication of names.
ECOWAS Technical Team Head’s assertions came in the wake of nationwide protest threats for the election-body to clean the Voter’s Roll before Dec 8 elections.
Opposition party alleged that the Voter’s Roll is associated with flaws, duplication of names, underage registration and other corruptions before the scheduled elections.
In an effort to ensuring peaceful and credible elections on December 8, ECOWAS invited one of its Technical Election Teams in Monrovia aimed at helping the National Elections Commission’s Technical Team in cleansing the most contended Voter’s Roll before Dec 8.
The ECOWAS Technical Team through its head, Chidi Nwafor, explained that the Voter’s Roll system is not strange to them and stated further that the ECOWAS Technical Team had worked with NEC during the 2017 Elections which ended at the Supreme Court and even worked with NEC’s Technical Team to ensure the Supreme Court’s Mandate for runoff elections.
Speaking during an Emergency IPCC meeting organized by the National Elections Commission, Mr. Nwafor admitted that the Voter’s Roll is filled with duplication which they claimed can be cleaned.
Mr. Chidi Nwafor also noted that the ECOWAS Technical Team and UNDP can help the NEC Technicians to clean the Voter’s Roll but cannot cover the entire country due to time factor.
The group indicated that a county or two counties can be worked on before the elections but political party’s leaders contended that mass registration and the duplication processes befell across Liberia.
A member of the four Collaborating Political party (CPP) and the Secretary of Liberty, Jacob Smith said, for the admittance of the Technical Team that Voter’s Roll is filled with duplicated names, and also indicated that they cannot clean the entire Voter’s Roll due to time factor as he envisages post elections conflict.
Unity Party’s official, Atty. J. Bangulo Cole, and other party’s leaders expressed resentments earlier for the fact that the ECOWAS Technical Team viewed the Voter’s Roll for two weeks as indicated by the technical team with a representation of the political party, something, they termed as violation of the Supreme Court’s ruling in which he says, the Voter’s Roll must be cleaned alongside with political party’s technicians.
Political party’s leaders also contended that the meeting called by NEC was intended for the ECOWAS Technical Team to educate them and however asked, NEC to reschedule another meeting in which political party’s technicians will be provided so that together with ECOWAS, Technicians can clean the Voter’s Roll.