IPNEWS- A group under the banner, ‘Youth against Trucking,’ Tuesday, March 21, 2023, set up road blocks in some parts of Gbarpolu County to prevent buses and pickups that the group said were trucking non-residents to do their voter’s registration in the County, a correspondent in the provincial Capital, Bopolu City, has said.
The correspondent working for Bushrod Radio 98.1 in Monrovia, did not give the particulars, including license plate numbers of the buses and pickups involved in the alleged trucking, neither name the person or persons behind the alleged act, but said the standoff lasted for several hours.
The correspondent also said the voters’ registration exercise did not begin in several parts of the County due to elections workers’ inability to operate the biometric voters’ registration machines.
Flashback: A Liberian voter cast his ballot during one of the elections held in the country. Voters’ trucking is reportedly springing up once against despite public condemnation
According to the correspondent, turnout was impressive in Bopolu, but said the process was very slow and that people stood in the queues from in the morning to the evening hours on Tuesday. He said some of the biometric machines were not functional, stalling the registration process in areas where they malfunctioned.
Meanwhile, a similar commotion over alleged voters trucking also erupted in a place known as Jah Tondo Town in the Brewerville area outside Monrovia, particularly District-17, where reports say the residents also prevented individuals allegedly trucked in the area from doing their voter’s registration because they were not residents of the area.
No further details were provided.
Voters trucking is an old aged problem that has always characterized election processes across Liberia. The act is common among desperate individuals, mostly politicians, wanting to be elected to the National Legislature through unscrupulous means.
Meanwhile, Police in Monrovia have arrested several persons reportedly trucked to do their voters’ registration in Montserrado County District-7 although they are not residents of the District.
The identities of those arrested are still undisclosed, but are undergoing police preliminary investigation.
