By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor
Liberia’s population is little over four millions, the National Elections Commission has announced that at least half the population will make the pivotal decision to elect the next president of Liberia and tens of other legislative candidates.
The NEC has published that 2,183,683 Liberians are qualified to decide the next national leadership of the country in the October 10, 2017 Representatives and Presidential elections.
National Elections Commission Chairman Jerome George Korkoya told journalists during a press conference Friday, July 28, at the NEC headquarters that the disclosure of the final listing is in compliance with article 2.9 (K) (N) and (s) of the New Elections Laws of Liberia.
NEC DE-AGGREGATION FIGURES PER COUNTY
Chairman Korkoya detailed that of the 2,183,683 registrants of the country, there are some counties that hit the top. Those counties include Montserrado, which is the stronghold of the Coalition for Democratic Change of Senator George Weah, that obtained 777,503, followed by Senator Prince Johnson political stronghold, Nimba with 279,572. The people of Bong put up a strong showing with registration of 208,150, while Lofa, the home of Liberia’s vice president and Standard Bearer of the governing Unity Party Joseph Nyumah Boakai took the fourth place with 167,555.
Margibi of Independent Presidential candidate and Senator Oscar Cooper obtained 154,328 and Grand Bassa of Liberty Party Standard Bearer, Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine closed the top flight with 145,798 registrants.
According to Korkoya, of that total figure, male registrants constitute 1,120,950, females constitute 1,062,733, and persons 18 years old registered 108,485.
Korkoya told the conference that the commission is aware in a little over ten weeks from today that one of the most pivotal and critical elections in the country’s history will be conducted.
“As such, those of us charged with the scared responsibility to direct the process take this national duty with utmost seriousness and are determined to delivered, to best of our ability, free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections, the chairman assures Liberians,” he added.
He noted that the electoral house is aware that the credibility of the electoral process to a large extent hinges on the credibility of the voter register. “That is why when citizens complained of their names not being on the roll following the publication of the provisional voters’ roll, the commission took a number of steps to correct the situation,” he said.
Korkoya explained that the commission hired a reputable data management group, Super Tech of Ghana, to audit the provisional roll. Super Tech is the company that audited the Ghanaian voter registers following their voters’ registration process in 2016.
“The outcome and recommendations from that audit exercise was very helpful in arriving at the finally voters roll. Recruitment of a data expert of the United Nations Development Program with our data center staff were online correcting some of the challenges we had,” he said.
Korkoya, on behalf of his colleagues, expressed his profound thanks and appreciation to the Liberian government, the Liberian media and international partners for their respective support ensuring peaceful elections.
