“BIOMETRIC VOTING COMING IN 2023” -NEC Boss, says exercise will bring credibility

By Rancy S. Teewia

If the projections from the Chairperson of the National Elections Commission (NEC), Madam Davidetta Brown Lassanah is anything to go by, then Liberians should be bracing up for the introduction of the biometric voting system in the 2023 Presidential and General elections that will significantly address the many challenges associated with conducting elections in the country which in some instances end up in disputes at NEC and the Supreme Court

Making the disclosure on the OK FM Morning Ride Show monitored in Monrovia on Monday, October 23, 2021, the NEC Boss, while stating that the exercise will alleviate fraudulent activities during elections, also said that it has been an ongoing process during the tenure of former Chair, Jerome Korkoya to migrate from voters registration biometric system which was decided by the electoral board.

“It has a been process by the National Election Commission (NEC) to migrate voters registration to biometric and luckily I have the opportunity to serve as a Commissioner  in 2017,under the chairperson Kokoya where the board made the decision to migrate to biometric,”

She noted that over the period NEC invited several experts from other countries to guard the process and added that some of her staffers have attended a series of workshops in order to enable them to understand the use of biometric. Madam Brown-Lassah noted that the biometric process is not something new but it has been decided a long time ago.

At same time the National Election Commission has  requested from  the central Government an amount of USD91.9 m for the conduct of the 2023 Presidential and General elections which is inclusive of  the biometric registration and the entire process.

“We decided to use this biometric process during the past 2017 election but some of our partners advised that the time was very short because it was the country’s first time and we needed proper preparation like two years to the election time and that is why we have decided now to ask the government for USD91.9 m for the conduct of 2023 Presidential and General elections,” NEC Boss added.

She added that the biometric process should be taken seriously because this process will bring credibility during the process of the registration, asserting that the use of biometric will disengage the process from too many errors, voter impersonation, misplacement of record and amongst others. She said they have been working assiduously at the Commission advocating to ensure that the voter registration process is transitioned to biometric.

The NEC boss has also assured the general public that the upcoming 2023 election will be a free and transparent election. “I can assure the Liberian people that if the biometric process is done and with all our strategies that we are putting in place, I can tell you that what Liberian people will get is what they put in 2023”.

Meanwhile, Madam Davidetta Brown- Lassanah has acknowledge the general public that the preparation for the  conduct of Representatives bi-election in the four Counties, Bong, Bomi, Nimba and Grand Gedeh Counties is on course, adding that the process will be not later than November 16, of this year.

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