But Lauds Young People For Peaceful Voting
PHOTO: Abraham B. Kollie, FLY official
By J. Peter S. Dennis, dennisrealone@gmail.com
GBARNGA, Liberia- The Federation of Liberian Youths (FLY) Bong County Coordinator has raised eyebrows over the huge number of invalid votes recorded by the National Elections Commission (NEC) in the just-ended October 10, 2023 presidential and legislative elections, but has appreciated young people for their peaceful participation in the just ended elections.
NEC announced this week that there were over 114,000 invalid votes in the recent polls, when it announced the final results earlier this week.
According to Abraham B. Kollie, despite the initial rough start of the campaign, many young people across the country rightly conducted themselves during and after the elections.
This, he adds, led to many election observers including the Election Coordinating Committee (ECC), Liberia Observation Network and the West Africa Elders forum headed by former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan hailing Liberia for its peaceful elections.
Abraham B. Kollie further attributed the trend of successes to the different peace messages propagated by peace institutions across the country despite the daunting challenges including finances and logistics.
The Bong County FLY coordinator openly encouraged Liberians especially young people to maintain such ethical standard during the runoff election.
NEC data
On Tuesday, October 24, 2023, the National Elections Commission set November 14 as the official date for a runoff election between the governing Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and the opposition Unity Party (UP) after both parties couldn’t get the required constitutional vote to be declared winner.
The NEC’s mandate is in line with article 83 B of the Liberian Constitution.
“All elections of public officers shall be deermined by an abolute majority of the votes casts. If no candidate obtains an absolute majority in the first ballot, a second ballot shall be conducted on the second Tuesday following. The two candidates who received the greatest numbers of votes on the first ballot shall be designated to participate in the runoff election”.
Making an official pronouncement, NEC chairperson Madam Davidetta Browne Lassana stated that incumbent President George Manneh Weah obtained 804,087 votes constituting 43.83% while his main rival Joseph Boakai garnered 796,961 votes constituting 43.44% of the total valid votes.
Alarming invalid votes
On invalid votes, the Federation of Liberian Youths (FLY) Bong County Coordinator thinks, the NEC and parties within the elections didn’t do much to create awareness to limit the invalid votes.
According to the National elections commission, there are over 114 thousand invalid votes in these elections [president, senate and representatives].
Abraham feels the number is alarming and wants more concentration to replace this ahead of the runoff election.
Recommendation
Abraham B. Kollie further recommended to the National Elections Commission to work with established youth groups to create more awareness.
This, he believes will minimize the too many invalid votes obtained during the October 10, 2023 elections.
According to Abraham, many voting screens were dark thus rendering many voters indecisive behind dark screen- although the National Elections Commission two lamps to each polling place across the country.