By Taisiah K. Merfee
IPNEWS-Monrovia: The Elections Coordinating Committee (ECC) is pleased to announce a partnership with the Irish Government through the office of the Development Cooperation under the project: “Deeping and Consolidating Liberia’s Democracy”. The project, which runs for one year (May 2023-May 2024) is valued at US$100,000 (One Hundred Thousand United States Dollars).
This grant compliments a current election project of the ECC that is funded by USAID. The implementation of the project is tied around four distinct but yet inter-related pillars: Citizens’ participation, electoral integrity, electoral security and consultation on electoral reforms.
Giving the overview of the Project, ECC Chair said under the first pillar, the focus of the intervention will be the provision of civic and voters’ education to first time voters to enable them make informed decisions.
Cllr. Oscar Bloh added that the second pillar deals with promoting electoral integrity through the deployment of Three hundred (300) observers on Election Day.
He said pillar three focuses on building citizens’ trust in the police through the conduct of police-community dialogues due to police that is under-resourced in terms of personnel, logistics, and finance for operations, and the fourth pillar highlights consultations on electoral reforms.
According to him on October 10 this year, Liberia will conduct its fourth consecutive presidential and legislative elections since the end of the civil war in 2003. “So, what is new, the cost of the elections will be largely provided by the Liberian Government.”
“The management of the election will be done by the NEC without substantial external logistical support from the international community”.
He added that Electoral security will be the full responsibility of internal security agencies (Liberia National Police and Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency), the security agencies must be perceived as neutral and demonstrate non-partisan posture in dealing with all political actors including women.
Cllr. Bloh narrated about the transition from manual to Biometric Voters Registration system. “We have consistently said that if properly managed, the BVR can improve the quality of the country’s democracy because credible elections are built on a credible voter roll.”
He said during an election year, the civic space tends to be occupied by political actors and in their quest for votes, their utterances in some instances are inflammatory and in other cases they border on hate speeches.
“This reinforces the polarization and division in the society and this increases the risk of electoral violence, The security apparatus, given the conditions mentioned above may not be in the position to respond in the event where there is spontaneous violence across the country”.
He is at the same time calling on citizens to face the reality that their population is very young and with limited livelihood opportunities they are vulnerable to be used by political spoilers to instigate violence during this period through the formation and financing of youth militant groups with resources which in many cases have no source.
He however, told Journalists that Electoral violence in many instances is a calculated attempt by individuals or political parties to instill fear and intimidation in their opponents with the sole purpose of influencing the outcome of the election.
“When this happens, it undermines the doctrine and principle of fair competition that is required for the conduct of any election”.
He said their attention is drawn by active involvement of the Chair of the Governance Commission in active politics in contravention of Section 5.3.4 of the Act that established the Commission.
It states that “Commissioners must maintain a non-partisan stance to prevent the Commission’s agenda and processes from being influenced by political biases.”
“More troubling, his conduct is also in violation of the Code of Conduct for Public Officials (Section 5.1.3) which clearly prohibits public officials from engaging in political activities while in office”.
The ECC boss said over the years, the country’s governance system and practices have been challenged due to impunity and the lack of adherence to the rule of law.
He noted elections do not guarantee democracy and so becomes the collective responsibility of civil society organizations including election observation groups to confront practices and behaviors that undermine the quality of our democracy.
“This support from the Irish Government will contribute to the work of the ECC in providing an independent voice on the electoral process and we will do it without fear or favor.”
“We are proud of the trust repose in us as a partner and we can assure Irish Aid and the tax payers of Ireland that the resources provided to the ECC will be managed and used in an effective, efficient, and professional manner”.
The Elections Coordinating Committee (ECC) is Liberia’s largest domestic election observation network.
