By Lincoln G. Peters
The Women’s Situation Room (WSR) has blamed the inadequacy of civic and voter education (CVE) for the staggering 114,639 invalid votes which represented 5.88% of the total votes cast on 10 October 2023.
On Thursday, 26 October 2023, WSR presented its elections observation finding, expressing deep concern over the influx of invalid votes across the country.
Presentation of the findings, WSR Initiator and Establishment Coordinator of the Angie Brooks International Center for Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development International Peace and Security Cllr. Cyvette Cheeson-Wureh described CVE as paramount to democracy and national decision-making.
“The inadequacy of civic and voter education before the October 10 [presidential and legislative] elections can be blamed for the staggering 114,639 invalid votes which represented 5.88% of the total votes,” she said.
According to her, NEC informed Liberians that first-time voters constituted a little over 20 percent of registered voters – a figure which she said pointed to the priority of Civic and Voter Education.
Cllr. Chesson-Wureh noted that while the WSR Talking Bus was deployed to its 7 active counties for such education, NEC together with other stakeholders needed to scale up CVE efforts to ensure voters were sufficiently informed.
The WSR boss called on the NEC and its partners to boost CVE ahead of the runoff election in a much more decentralized manner.
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She wants them to raise awareness through door-to-door visits, radio talk shows, TV programs, jingles, and dialogues with politically marginalized people such as women, youth, and persons with disabilities.
“The Talking Bus will once more be deployed by the WSR to our 7 counties to assist in the Civic and Voter Education as we wait for the runoff election,” she said.
Releasing Policing Campaign Activities, the WSR believes that the responsibility of peaceful and non-provocative campaign activities lies with the political parties scheduled for the presidential run-off election.
According to Cllr. Cheeson-Wureh, devout partisans from the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and the Unity Party (UP) listen and follow directions that trickle down to them from their party’s leadership as well as the managers of the political campaigns.
She described as regretful, the bloody clashes of some campaign activities including the 8 October incident between the CDC and ALCOP where injuries were sustained and properties were lost.
She also said the violence damaged one WSR vehicle, calling on CDC and UP to police their campaign activities.
“It should not be recorded that this ugly history be repeated during the preparatory activities of the presidential runoff elections because lessons were not learned from the mistakes of the past,” she stated.
