The National Elections Commission (NEC) has reiterated that phased one of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercises would go on as planned despite some minor challenges being faced with.
However, the NEC clarification comes after complaints about not receiving all of the funding required to conduct the voter registration process, something which raises concerns that the NEC would be forced to postpone the start of the voter registration as scheduled from March 20 to April 9.
But NEC Chairperson, Davidetta Browne Lansanah dismissed such fears, claiming progress has been made “in preparation for the scheduled commencement of the BVR process.”
She said, “A 5-day training of electoral supervisors has started, while training of 3,195 voter registration staff convenes today and ends on March 17. Also, the locations of voter registration centres in phase one counties had been published in keeping with Section 3.2 of the New Elections Law.”
“NEC has also conducted several mock demonstrations of the biometric voters registration exercise for the Liberia Marketing Association, political parties and civil society and that a 20-man technical team from LAXTON Group, headed by Daniel Engelbrecht, is currently in the country to assist NEC with training, logistics, and preparations for the arrival of equipment and other BVR materials and the setting up of the server in the Data Center of NEC,” the NEC Boss asserted.
Madam Brown-Lansanah noted that civic and voter Education (CVE) activities for the voter registration have been ongoing in the six phase one counties since its launch on February 24, 2023.
“To mitigate risks and challenges associated with the BRV exercise, the NEC Chairperson challenged all stakeholders to effectively play their role by avoiding spreading fake news, misinformation, and disinformation in order to ensure that the transition to BVR is successful.”
Meanwhile, the first phase of the biometric voter registration exercise is expected to kick off in Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Grand Bassa, Gbarpolu, Margibi and Montserrado counties.
