-As NEC adds 299, 969 new voters
The National Elections Commission (NEC) says about two million, four hundred and eighty-three thousand, and three hundred fifty (2,483,350) Liberians are expected to vote in the upcoming December 8 Senatorial election and Referendum.
Addressing a press conference Friday November 6, NEC Chairperson Davidetta Browne Lansanah disclosed that the number includes additional two hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred sixty-nine (299, 969) new registrants.
She said prior to the Voters Roll Update exercise, the number of registered voters within the NEC data center was two Million, One Hundred, Eighty-three Thousand, Three Hundred Eighty-one (2, 183, 381).
The NEC boss explained that the figure was derived at after cleaning the 2017 voter roll, as mandated by the Supreme Court.
It could be recalled that in 2017, the Liberty Party then headed by the late Cllr. Charles Brumskine, filed a petition before the Liberian Supreme Court citing several irregularities and voters fraud during the 2017 elections which he lost.
The Supreme Court then rule that the voters roll should be cleaned. Recently, the four Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) comprising, the Liberty Party (LP), former ruling Unity Party (UP), All Liberian Party (ALP) and Alternative National Congress (ANC) filed a writ of mandamus before the Supreme Court seeking to halt the Voters Roll Update among many other claims, but their request was denied.
“We are pleased to announce the conclusion of the 2020 Voter Roll Update exercise,” Mrs. Browne-Lasannah said noting that that of two hundred, ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and sixty-nine (299, 969) new registrants one hundred, eighteen thousand, nine hundred and twenty-three, (118, 923) constituting 39.6 percent, are females, while one hundred eighty-one thousand forty-six, (181, 046) constituting 60.4 percent, are males.
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She quickly noted that these numbers are provisional and they are likely to change due to the ongoing voter roll cleaning exercise.
“We are also pleased to inform the Liberian people that the Exhibition of the voter roll was concluded on October 31, 2020 as scheduled and results from that exercise are being processed by the data center,” the NEC’s chairperson said.
Madam Lansanah also used the time to announce that the United Nations electoral support program and ECOWAS data experts in the country are closely working the commission ensuring a professional and technical cleaning of the roll is done.
The NEC’s boss pointed out that these data experts are currently providing support to the NEC Data Center staff in enhancing the quality of the voter roll for the December 8, 2020 Special Senatorial Elections; District # 9, Montserrado By-election; District # 2, Sinoe County By-election; and the 2020 Constitutional Referendum.
“The team has been working for two weeks now and has been providing preliminary briefings to political parties and other stakeholders on the status of thee voter roll and the work they, along with the NEC Data Center Team, are doing to get the voter roll ready for the December 8th elections. It pleases me to report that the UN and ECOWAS experts have given a lot of credit to the NEC Data Tem for the level of expertise and professionalism these Liberians have exhibited even prior to the arrival of the international data experts,” she told the press conference.
By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor -Edited by Othello B. Garblah
