—-As Voter Registration Get to a Smooth Start
IPNEWS: Liberia’s National Election Commission (NEC) yesterday, Tuesday, March 20, 2023, begin Voters Registration across Liberia.
The progress according to IPNEWS Correspondents across six populace counties shows a high turnout mainly among youths.
IPNEWS has also observed in parts of Montserrado, Buchanan, Vonjama, Gnata, and Zwdru cities, huge turnout, however, slow finish-out on registrants at various voter’s registration centers.
Our team further observed some persons claimed to be residents of the districts but with limited knowledge of the districts, including communities of habitation sparking mixed reactions from fellow voter registrants at various polling centers.
Montserrado and Grand Bassa counties according to the field team remain heavily contested with voter trucking accusations, even though IPNEWS could not independently verify the authenticity of the widespread rumors and accusations.
President George Weah earlier in January announced that he would run for reelection after a term plagued by corruption allegations and economic downturn. Despite encouraging citizens to register to vote and ensure credible elections, Weah’s government has not directly addressed concerns that the government is working alongside the NEC, compromising the validity of Liberia’s electoral process.
Opposition parties have questioned the credibility of results from a recent national census
report, and also drawn attention to the NEC ruling out the use of biometrics in registration
processes.
On March 17, 2023, the opposition Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), filed a petition before the full bench of the Supreme Court of Liberia over concern about the constitutionality of the action of the National Elections Commission (NEC) to conduct Voters Registration, after the conduct of a Census, but without constitutionally demarcating constituencies into which a voter is to be registered.
In a press statement signed by Secretary General Martin Kollah, the Opposition party quoted Article 80 (c), “every Liberian citizen shall have the right to be registered in a constituency, and to vote in public elections only in the constituency where registered…”
According to (d) of the same Article, a constituency “shall have an approximately equal population of 20,000, or such number of citizens as the Legislature shall prescribe in keeping with population growth and movements as revealed by a national census; provided that the total number of electoral constituencies in the Republic shall not exceed one hundred.” At (e), the Constitution provides that “immediately following a national census and before the next elections, the Elections Commission shall reapportion the constituencies in accordance with the new population figures so that every constituency shall have as close to the same population as possible; provided, however, that a constituency must be solely within a county.”
The CPP petition to the High Court comes amid growing tensions from within Liberia’s parliament threatening to obstruct the election process with the Movement for Democratic Reconstruction, led by Senator Prince Johnson, a former ally of President Weah, who withdrew support for Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) ruling party recently.
With Weah keen to remain in power, and growing concerns about the potential for elections to be manipulated in his favor, further delays to the election process may pose a major constitutional crisis for Liberia if no government is elected before Weah’s tenure ends in January.
