MONROVIA – The Liberian People’s Party(LPP) has said having studied the issues generated with the proposed use of the biometric voters registration by the National Elections Commission (NEC), it has taken a decision to oppose the technology for the 2023 presidential and legislative elections due to what it called “the lack of adequate preparation on the part of the NEC”, adding The 2023 Presidential and Legislative Elections cannot and should not be a pilot project and that Liberians cannot afford to take a gamble with the 2023 Presidential and Legislative Elections because the stakes could never be higher.
In a press release issued by the party and signed by George B. Caine III, Vice Chairperson for Administration, party suggested that since the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services(LISGIS) has announced that it will be conducting a national census on population and housing in the country, the results from the exercise could be used by NEC to delineate electoral constituencies, so that the 2023 Elections may be conducted on the basis of constituency and not electoral districts, adding that this will be adhering to the constitution.
LPP had earlier reminded NEC of a press conference hosted by the Chairperson Madam Davidetta Brown Lassanah which was centered around the 2023 elections budget and the proposed migration from the current Optical Mark Recognition(manual registration) to Biometric Voter Registration for the aforementioned 2023 Presidential and Legislative Elections.
“Since that press conference, concern continue mount about the NEC desire to use Biometric Voter Registration for the 2023 Presidential and Legislative Elections.
“It was in few of those concerns, that the House of Representatives Committee on Elections and Inauguration invited the NEC with you as head to clarify some doubts certain law makers had on the Biometric System in the conduct of elections. The House Committee appears not convinced that Liberia is ready for Biometric Voter Registration based on NEC inability to address some lawmakers’ concerns on Biometric.
“Madam Chair, the LPP is also aware of the concerns expressed by the Public Procurement Concession Commission (PPCC) which invariably casts some doubts on NEC’s preferred company, EKEMP. The LPP is cognizant of the fact that the OMR system of voter registration is obsolete, and the need to introduce the Biometric as an alternative cannot be overemphasized”, the party said.
The party said it is of the view that in order to introduce a Biometric System of Voter Registration in our electoral process, adequate preparations have to be made which entails the training of NEC parties technicians, and a massive awareness campaign among the citizenry about this new technology. With the above done, the NEC would then try the new system as a pilot in a by-election to gain confidence in the system.
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