NEC ends weeklong lessons learned conf. in Buchanan

The National Elections Commission (NEC) has ended a five-day internal lessons learned conference to reflect on the 2017 elections in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.

The Chairman and members of the Board of Commissioners of NEC, partners including USAID, IFES, UNDP, UNMIL, AU, and EU graced the weeklong conference.
Earlier on the opening day on Tuesday February 28, 2018, NEC Chairman Cllr. Jerome Korkoya praised employees and partners for the successful conduct of the 2017 elections. Chairman Korkoya also commended the government of Liberia for the commitment and support.

Having declared the Conference officially open, Cllr. Korkoya urged the employees to be critical in the lessons learned review process, saying employees should not deterred to speak on any issues relevant to the occasion. He said an honest and critical critique of the NEC during the 2017 election would help with future elections.
In separate statements, EU, USAID and AU representatives at the program lauded the NEC for the conduct of the 2017 elections in the midst of controversies and limited resources.

They also pledged their respective institutions’ support to the Commission’s activities. UNMIL and UNDP, in similar fashion, commended the Commissioners and staff for the successful election.

The conference commenced on Tuesday February 28 and ended Saturday March 3, 2018. The conference, which focused on the 2017 presidential ad representative elections, carried the theme “Learning together enables better working together”.

It had three core objectives: a. to document what worked and what did not work well in terms planning and execution of the 2017 elections process; b. to design strategies for solving shortcomings identified during the conference, and c. to gather feedback from NEC technical partners on the 2017 elections process.

The internal review brought together about 100 participants including NEC’s executives, senior and junior staff, field staff as well as the Commission’s technical international partners.

The 2017 presidential and representative elections have come and gone but issues surrounding the historic elections are being discussed locally and internationally. The election was marred by avalanche of legal encounters, logistic constraints, issues of funding, and gross slanting by some media Houses, among others.

The flipside of the coin saw Liberia recording a history spanning more than 50 years since a sitting president turned over power peacefully to an elected president. The 2017 elections also recorded the highest number of voting population, more than two million and the highest turnout on Election Day, which was closed to two million registered voters.

In addition, the 2017 runoff election went beyond the usual period of two weeks interval after the first round, thus reducing the traditional period allotted for transition and transfer of power. The Supreme Court of Liberia mandated the NEC to implement several counts, for instance the pasting of the FRR at all polling places before Election Day, following several and long legal arguments between the NEC and both the Unity party and the Liberty party.

These and other reasons buttressed the need for lessons learned conference to capture the successes and challenges and forward recommendations to inform future elections by the NEC.-Press release