As the National Election Commission (NEC) commenced the Biometric Voters Registration (BVR) Exercise on March 20, 2023, reports say lack of technical knowledge by BVR staffers to effectively operate biometric voters registration equipment stall the process on the first day of the process in several areas in Montserrado County and other areas.
According to our reporters who toured various registration centers, Biometric Voters Registration staff experienced difficulties in setting up the equipment which brought a delay in the start of the process at many centers.
The process which should have started at 9:00 am could not start until about noon which saw many potential Liberians leaving their queues and returning home or attending to normal activities.
In the township of new Georgia representing district #13, Montserrado County, some staff of NEC were seen conducting tutorials to biometric voters’ registration personnel as if they did not attend previous workshops organized by the National Elections Commission on the process.
Hon. Lewis K. Wleh, New Georgia Township Commissioner, told Kukatonon News that he went to the registration center at 6:00 am due to fear that the lines will have been long and the process did not start early.
“The problem is with NEC; they failed to use the people they had already trained and then took new people who don’t know how to operate the equipment and brought them, so the delay is too much in the process”; Wleh indicated, adding, “Many of the people have left, even me, look at the time now, it just began. At the same, they did not inform owners of the facilities they were going to use and as such, some property owners are preventing NEC from using their places”.
He also told Kukatonon News that at the Christina Bedell School in New Georgia Estate Bassa Town Junction, the proprietress prevented NEC from using her facility.
A classroom teacher, Samuel B. Russ, however, told reporters that the delay has been due to the connections problem the NEC staffers face at his center which resulted in a delay in the starting of the registration process.
“Yes, there have been delays due to the wire connection problems, the staff had technical challenges in making the connections but it is on now and is going smoothly” he stated. Sunnyga Z. Gardia, a resident of New Georgia Estate Gulf told Kukatonon News that the process was very slow as they have spent a long time with fewer people being processed due to the NEC staff’s lack of knowledge on the usage of the equipment.
“We have been here since this morning and the process is very slow because the people don’t know about the machines, they have called somebody from the NEC officer to come and help them set them up for them before they started and I feel so bad because my time is been wasted,” he told Kukatonon at 12:15 Pm when the process began the William Gabriel Kpolleh High School where he had gone to register at about 7:30 AM.
At the same time, several voter registration centers in Montserrado County particularly in and around Monrovia are observed to experience relatively low turn-ups marking the Day-one of the voter registration exercise due to the late starting of the process by the NEC staff.
Despite the series of awareness, by the National Election Commission to announce March 20th as the commencement of the voter registration exercise, our reporter who toured several voter registration centers in Montserrado county following Day one of the process said, it was observed that centers comprising the regions of the capital, Monrovia, were marked by a considerable low number of people making up ques at respective centers to register.
Biometric Voters Registration (BVR) is being introduced to the Liberia electoral process for the first time since the country gained independence in 1847.
Phase one of the BVR commenced on Monday, March 20th to run through April 9th every day, including Sundays simultaneously in Montserrado, Bomi, Grand Bassa, Margibi, Gbarpolu and Grand Cape Mount Counties across the country.
Bedeskoe Nyumah Tumbay Is A professional Liberian Multimedia Journalist, a Full Member Of The Press Union Of Liberia (PUL), Who Reports On All Sectors Of Society. He Has Several Years Of Experience In Journalism, Media Relations, Communication Consultancy, Video And Audio Contents Gathering, Editing And Production Among Others.