NEC Prepares for Biometric Voter Registration; Set to Start Process on March 20
The Chairperson of the National Elections Commission Madam Davidetta Brown Lansanah has disclosed that materials for the Biometric Voter Registration mostly for training are currently in the Country. The materials include hard printers, computers, and PVC cards among others.
Madam Lansanah said that the training of Electoral Supervisors is currently ongoing while the training of Elections Magistrate, Assistant Magistrate, and County Logistics Officers has been completed, adding that the 3195 Biometric Voter Registration staff training will start on March 13-17, 2023.
The Biometric Voter Registration starts on March 20 and ends on May 11, 2023. It will be done in two phases. Phase one includes Bomi, Gbarpolu, Margibi, Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount, and Montserrado Counties, which runs from March 20 to April 9 while phase two will be Bong, Grand Gedeh, Maryland, Grand Kru, Nimba, Lofa, River Gee, River Cess, and Sinoe Counties which covers April 21- May 11, 2023.
According to her, in compliance with section 3.2(a) of the new election laws of Liberia, the Commission has published voter registration centers in six Counties of phase one.
The NEC Boss admitted that several BVR demonstrations have been carried out including to the Liberia Marketing Association, Political Parties and plans are underway to do a demonstration of the joint Houses of the Legislature, something which she said the Biometric Voter Registration software has been tested and in readiness.
Madam Lansanah also added that the Commission will introduce a PERSONAL DATA ENTRY (PDE) portal in the pending Voter registration process according to her the PDE will reduce the time it takes to process a registrant at the registration center but emphasized that “the Personal Data Entry Portal” is optional.
Meanwhile, NEC Chairperson registered that the Civil Voter Education and Gender Outreach activities are currently ongoing among the six Counties of the first phase since the simultaneous launching of these activities, indicating that the BVR messages are aired on Community Radio Stations.
“I myself have traveled to most of the fifteen Counties meeting with County Officials, Women, Youth, people with disabilities Religious leaders and joint security to solicit their support”; she noted.
The commission encourages all National and International organizations and media institutions to observe the Biometric Voter Registration exercise to apply to the commission communication department as the deadline for the application has been extended to March 17 instead of 10th of March, 2023.
At the same time, Madam Lansanah confirmed that the Government of Liberia has made available 4 million US Dollars out of 33 million US Dollars allocated for the conduct of the 2023 General and Presidential elections, something which she explained that the payment of the total amount agreed to be done in three installments starting March 15 and last installment to be made on April 15, 2023.
Madam Lansanah made the statement at the bimonthly update of election stakeholders on the Voter Registration process held at NEC headquarters in Monrovia on Friday, 10th March, 2023.
