By Ethel A. Tweh
National Elections Commission (NEC) chairperson Madam Davidetta Browne-Lansanah has informed the Liberia Senate that there is an outstanding of US$3.2M for the conduct of this year’s elections.
The NEC boss appeared before the Liberian Senate Tuesday, 29 August 2023 and lamented the financial gap with less than two months to the presidential and legislative elections.
She said the Commission has so far received US$49, 710, 210.00 out of US$53M needed to conduct the 10 October 2023 elections.
Browne-Lansanah also informed the Senate that recruitment of portal has been published for the recruitment of temporary staff and data will be retrieved from the portal to determine the capacity of applicants to conduct the 2023 elections.
Madam Lansanah further noted that Final Registration Roll will be published and released to political parties in September.
The NEC chairperson indicated that while it is true that biometric was used for the voters’ registration process, voting is going to be conducted on a manual basis.
However, she stressed that no gadget (camera) will be allowed in the voting room.
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Madam Browne-Lansanah was queried by Grand Bassa County Senator Nyonblee Karnga- Lawrence as to why 93 pprecincts have exceeded the threshold of 3,000 in keeping with Section 4.3 of the Elections Law.
The NEC chair conceded to violating the law. She was further questioned by Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon as to who the current head for the NEC’s Legal Section is.
Dillon sought to know who heads the department because Atty. Teage Jalloh did not meet the criteria of a Counsellor to serve as head of such department.
In response, the Chairperson of the Commission stated that they are working with legal consultants to handle legal matters of the Commission.
Concluding the hearing, Senate President Pro-Tempore Albert T. Chie mandated the NEC cchairperson to appoint an acting head of the Legal Department within two weeks.
