Liberia is gradually taking its rightful place in the comity of nations, a position previously lost as a result of the civil conflict that led to state collapse. Another fresh evidence of the country’s rise from the ashes of war and international isolation comes in the election of the chairperson of the National Elections Commission (NEC) of the conglomerate of ECOWAS’ elections commissions. Madam Davidetta Browne Lansanah is now the First Vice President of the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions, (ECONEC). The Analyst reports.
Madam Davidetta Browne Lansanah, Chairperson of the National Elections Commission of Liberia, was last Wednesday unanimously elected as the First Vice President of ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions, (ECONEC). She was elected with others at the ongoing 7th Biennial General Assembly in the Ghanaian Capital, Accra.
The NEC-Liberia Chairperson was unanimously elected by Chairpersons of Elections Management Bodies in the West Africa Sub-region in Accra, Ghana.
Madam Browne Lansanah, who takes over from Burkina Faso, will serve as Frist Vice President of ECONEC for a two-year term.
A dispatch from Accra today, 15 December 2021, said Madam Browne Lansanah’s election to the First Vice President position in the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC), elevates Liberia and the NEC to the regional stage to influence policy formulation and implementation in promoting free, fair, and credible elections in West Africa.
As First Vice President of ECONEC, the NEC-Liberia Boss has the opportunity to influence the strengthening of public confidence in the electoral process, promotion of independent and impartial elections organizations and administrations and the development of professional elections officials with integrity within the sub-region.
Madam Lansanah joins her colleagues on the ECONEC Steering Committee seeking to strengthen cooperation for the improvement of electoral laws and practices, sharing of experiences, information technology and election rationalization and pooling of resources to reduce the cost of conducting elections in the Region.
Other elected EBM’s Chairpersons at the Accra Assembly include: Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Benin, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Gambia, Mali and Ghana.
According to the Accra dispatch, the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) was founded in February 2008 to promote free, fair, and credible elections.
ECONEC’s establishment was inspired by the 1991 ECOWAS Declaration of Political Principles of freedom, People’s Rights and democratization as a reaffirmation to compliment relevant provisions of the ECOWAS Protocol relating to the mechanism for conflict prevention, management resolution, peacekeeping and security, as well as the supplementary protocol on diplomacy and freed governance.
Since her magistracy as head of the Liberian electoral management body, Madam Lansanah has conducted several high-stake by-elections successfully and peacefully.
Senatorial and representative by-elections were held in the country due to death or transition of representatives to the Upper House of the National Legislature since the advent of the George Weah administration and the subsequent appointment of Madam Lansanah.
It can be recalled that the NEC, under her leadership, recently conducted midterm elections across the country. The elections were generally peaceful, transparent and fair, as testified by national and international observers.
Madam Lansannah has also embarked on a couple of reforms, including exploring possibility for the use of biometric voting cards in order to minimize fraud.
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