As It Establishes Civic And Voter Education Cells Across Liberia
By Esau J. Farr, esaufarr1980@gmail.com
Amid the increasing rise in the number of invalid votes during elections in Liberia, the National Elections Commission (NEC) says it is working harder to ensure the reduction of invalid votes during the October 10, 2023 presidential and legislative Elections.
Election experts define invalid votes as: “a vote which doesn’t count towards the final election result. When assessing the validity of a vote, the most important factor is whether or not the voter‘s intention can be clearly determined.”
According to commissioners of the NEC, one of the major goals of the electoral body of the country is to fight harder aimed at helping to reduce the level of alarming invalid votes that have characterized elections in the past.
Making a special statement at the official launch of the Civic and Voters Education (CVE) campaign on the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR), the Co-Chairperson of the NEC, Cllr. P. Teplah Reeves said the establishment of Civic and Voter Education (CVE) Cells across the 73 Electoral Districts in Liberia is meant to help reduce invalid votes in Liberia.
CVE Cells are groups of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Community Base Organizations (CBOs) that have been trained and hired by the NEC to assist the electoral body in enhancing the issue of voter’s education.
According to the Director of Civic and Voter’s Education at the National Elections Commission, the commission recorded over eight thousand invalid votes in the 2017 Presidential Run-Off Elections alone.
The situation, Director Paul Wilson said he does not want a repeat in the pending 2023 Elections.
“That is the reason why we carried out a pilot project launched in Lofa during the 2022 Senatorial Bi-Election and the result was rewarding,” Mr. Wilson said in a recent exclusive interview at his NEC’s office in Sinkor.
With the NEC targeting more than two million (2m) edible voters coupled with first time voters, it is very important for the election house of the country to do all it can to change such narrative as it has been done in the past.
According to Cllr. P. Teplah Reeves, the NEC has identified, trained and hired eighty-one (81) CVE Cells across the country to enhance the works of the Department of Civic and Voter’s Education at the NEC for a community based interaction of civic education on electoral activities leading to the holding the 2023 October polls.