The National Elections Commission (NEC) has mandated all would-be aspirants to remove campaign materials erected or disseminated on or before Monday, May 15, 2023.
The Commission reiterated that the campaign period of the 2023 Presidential and legislative elections is August 5 to October 8, 2023 and warned that any campaign activities done before the campaigning period are considered pre-campaigning, punishable by a fine of not less than US$1,000 or more than US$5,000 or its equivalence in Liberian Dollars payable into government revenue.
Issuing the mandate today, May 8, during the Bi-Monthly Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Stakeholders Briefing Session, Chairperson Davidetta Browne Lansannah said all billboards, posters, banners, jingles, dramas, utterances and other forms of promotional paraphernalia that signifies campaigning must be removed before the deadline.
She warned that failure to comply with the mandate will lead to consequences against the candidates’ nomination during the process, which runs from June 14 to July 14, 2023.
She reiterated that on May, 5 the Commission started documenting violations of campaign regulations and warned that all aspirants engaged in pre-campaigning to desist to avoid future embarrassments.
During the recent IPCC Information Sharing Meeting, NEC reaffirmed its unwavering resolve to enforce the 2023 Revised and Published Guidelines on Campaigning and informed all registered political parties, coalitions, alliances, and would-be aspirants that as of May 5, NEC, will begin the documentation of violations of the Guidelines and apply the appropriate actions against non-compliance.
Meanwhile, giving an update on the phase two of the Biometric Voters Registration (BVR) exercise, the commission mentioned that the voter registration exercise in Phase II counties commenced since April 21, 2023 and as planned all 1,015 registration centers in the nine counties had been opened for eligible Liberians to register.
The Commission added that the initial indications from their staff in the field are that the process has been generally peaceful and is proceeding as planned; as it was in the case of Phase I.
“Commissioners and staff of the NEC are using a holistic, coordinated approach to ensure that the process remains on course. To this end, the NEC, LAXTON and Neurotechnology technical teams have put in place rapid response mechanisms to resolve challenges adding, “By this holistic coordinated approach, we are addressing the challenges on ground.”
“Even with this general positive outlook of the process in Phase II, as expected, there have been some challenges at some of the centers, such as Spoilage of ribbons due to the application of wrong procedures for printing, also spoiling cards and cleaning materials resulting to increased demands for ribbons and cards. To resolve this problem, which was also observed in Phase I, the Commission immediately and internationally procured additional cards and ribbons for Phase II process, which arrived in the country last week and were immediately deployed to the field,” the Commission reported.
“The commission emphasized that voter registration centers that had excess were being redistributed to centers that had limited supplies. The few centers that experienced these challenges of printing and issuing of ID cards on the spot, continued the registration of eligible Liberians, with the assurance of issuing the ID cards at a later date,” NEC maintained.
NEC indicated that the ID cards for those registrants are being printed and issued, and that the Commission assures all registrants that did not receive their cards on the spot that they will receive them prior to the commencement of the Exhibition on June 12, 2023, because the magisterial teams are working overtime to ensure that all registered Liberians receive their voter’s ID cards.
“In order to address glitches in the running of the BVR equipment, NEC, LAXTON and Neurotechnology have flown in spare parts for BVR machines. The technicians are repairing and redeploying BVR machines in real time to continue the voter registration process,” NEC said.
The Commission urges eligible Liberians in Bong, Grand Gedeh, Grand Kru, Lofa, Maryland, Nimba, River Gee, River Cess and Sinoe, considered phase II counties, who are yet to register to do so before the end of the process on Thursday, May 11, 2023, because there will be no extension of the process beyond the deadline; however, on the last two day which are May 10-11, the centers will close at 7:00 pm, instead of the regular 5:00 pm.
The NEC encourages the use of the online Personal Data Entry application as an optional means of entering would-be registrants’ data. “ This will help to fast track the completion of their registration at the registration centers where their thumbprints will be captured, photos taken and ID cards issued,” the Commission stated.
At the same time, the Commission reiterates its earlier advice to Liberians 18 years and above not to attempt to register more than once, adding that it is a crime to get engaged in multiple registration and all perpetrators will be caught by the BVR system and turned over to the Justice Ministry for prosecution.
The Commission said besides, such multiple registrants will be automatically deactivated by the BVR system; in other words, you could lose the opportunity to exercise your franchise during the general elections.
As part of its update, the Commission also mentioned that Government of Liberia has committed itself to fully funding the elections, to date, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) has disbursed the amount of US$47,500,000.00 out of the US$53,000,000 budgeted for the fiscal years of 2022 and 2023.
On Thursday, May 4, the Finance Minister assured the Commission at the National Steering Committee on Elections of his commitment to provide the balance of US$5,500,000 before the end of May.
