PHOTO: Perkins Boye, Executive Director of ILF
By Kelvin Gonlah, gonlahkelvin1995@gmail.com
As the National Election Commission (NEC) begins phase 2 of the Biometric Voter Registration in the remaining nine counties, a local NGO, Improve Liberia Foundation (ILF) is urging NEC to deal decisively with voters trucking.
In a report released this week on the first phase of the just-ended BVR exercise which covered 6 counties, the ILF said its observers deployed in the six counties provided alarming reports of voters trucking, limited BVR materials glitches and the ineffectiveness of some NEC staff in relating to registrants.
Phase two of the BVR is slated to kick off on Friday, April 21, 2023 in Nimba, Rivercess, Maryland, Grand Kru, Sinoe, River Gee, Bong, Lofa and Grand Gedeh Counties.
Speaking reporters on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, the Executive Director of ILF, Perkins E.T Boye said that the first phase of the BVR process was largely peaceful, but there was huge tension and some isolated cases of violence.
In Montserrado, District 10, Margibi, and Grand Cape Mount counties on Voter trucking.
He explained that his organization’s observed that people were trucked from neighboring Districts to District 10 to register which led to conflict in some parts of the country during phase 1 of the Biometric Voter Registration process.
“Peace Island modal public Schools, Center # 30251, Congo Town Fullness of Life Apostolic Church, and Center number 30063, are a few out of many Centers where there were huge registrants due to voter trucking. This sparked massive tension between the incumbent, Rep. Yekeh Kolubah, and members of the ruling establishment on claims and counterclaims. In Margibi, our observers saw a huge number of people being trucked, the majority of those we spoke with said they went to register for the former Minister of State, Nathaniel McGill,” said the ILF Executive Director.
Mr. Boye also disclosed that in Cape Mount, there’s a huge borders trucking across (Roaring Registrants).
According to him, mainly aliens are taking from neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea to get registered, which has led to disruption of the process in some parts of the counties.
The report mentioned that Journalist Paywala of Truth FM reported that Eight Sierra Leoneans including one immigration officer was arrested for doing voter registration at the Bo Waterside area in Grand Cape Mount County.
“The Voter registration center was closed in Juladra Bomi County by NEC workers who claimed they were intimidated by Officials of the County. While others were arrested in Grand Cape Mount by the Liberia National Police (LNP) for taking actions, which included disruption of the process at Centers and chasing the Roaring Registrants (aliens) out of the area. And the beating of a Town Chief in Kporkpa District, Grand Cape Mount
County were incidents surrounding the process,” the ILF report added.
Executive Director Perkins stressed that the initial stages of the process were made with material glitches and a lack of motivation from NEC workers, including unfamiliarity or lack of proper use of the
materials by most NEC workers. He further stated that Registrants complained about the process being slow because the NEC staffs were not fast in punching in the data.
“Many registrants waited for hours without being registered. Populated Centers like St. Samuel High School Soul Clinic Community, Center code: 30114, Only register at most 200 persons and closed at 5:00 pm. Some registrants waited for up to two days to get registered. Sofina Day Care Elementary school in District #10, old road, Center number 30067 NEC, staff faced serious problems with their Devices, which could not allow them to meet their target daily. In some cases, the Center was closed and registrants were turned down due to device malfunctioning. Peace IsIand community public school, District #10. The machines were also malfunctioning at the initial stages of the process, causing the delay. Staff sometimes write down the names of those who spent hours and could not register due to the delay”, said Perkins.
“Online registration was another breakthrough during the BVR process. With registrants already complaining of the slowness of the NEC staff, which kept them standing long hours, the online registration process provides a means to speed up registrants in some form and have more people registering. However, there was not much awareness done by NEC to have citizens in the form of online registration, until the BVR process begins,” the ILF Executive Director explained.
Mr. Perkins told Reporters that the BVR is a new phenomenon in the electoral system of Liberia.
At the same time, the ILF has criticized NEC for “falling short of providing adequate staff training” of temporary election staff who were being sent to carry out the Biometric Voter Registration, which made some of them ineffective on the job.
According to the group, more Liberians age 18 and above would have registered, but the intermittent technical glitches, limited BVR materials and some centers affected the process.