NEC Calls for Violence-Free By-Election -As Six Candidates, Supporters Hold Stakeholders’ Interaction

MONROVIA – On the cusp of the June 28, 2022 Lofa County senatorial by-election, the National Elections Commission (NEC) on Monday, June 27 held a one-day Stakeholders’ Interaction (SI) meeting with the six candidates in the race, admonishing them to ensure that the Lofa by-election must be conducted free of any form of electoral violence.

Officially opening the interactive meeting, the Chairperson of the Commission, Madam Davidetta Browne Lansanah, along with Commissioner Barsee Leo Kpangbai, implored the nearly 80 participants to ensure a violence-free by-election in Lofa County.

Held under the theme, “Sustaining Peace and Building Trust in the Electoral process” at Pentecostal College Hall in Voinjama City, the NEC called on the candidates and their supporters to conduct themselves peacefully, before, during and after the Lofa By-election, and to create a platform where the Commission and candidates can interact face-to-face with a mutual spirit of partnership.

According to a statement from the NEC issued on Monday, 27 June 2022, the Stakeholders’ Interaction with the candidates and other election actors was meant to establish a framework, whereby the Lofa candidates and their supporters will derive an understanding of all the electoral processes, including Election Day Operations, through a broader review of the complaint adjudication procedures.

The NEC statement indicated that local and international observers like the United Nations Development Program, UNDP, Election Coordinating Committee, ECC, WOMEN NGO Secretariat, the UN Women, Persons Living with Disabilities and the Liberia Council of Churches through its Secretary General Reverend Christopher Toe and the media, as well as local government officials, to include Chiefs, fully participated in the Voinjama Stakeholders’ Interaction.