The Chairperson of the National Elections Commission (NEC), Davidetta Browne Lansanah, has assured Liberians that the Commission will continue to remain an integrity and independent institution, as provided for by law.
Browne Lansanah said to ensure this, the Commission will continue to work under all provisions of the Liberian Constitution, election laws, regulations and guidelines available to conduct free, fair, transparent and credible elections throughout the country.
The Chairperson of the National Elections Commission (NEC) spoke Wednesday when she appeared as guest on the live one-hour radio talk show, “Integrity Watch”, hosted by the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL), held on Truth FM radio station, Paynesville City.
The NEC-Liberia is amongst integrity institutions that are members of the National Integrity Forum, under the leadership of the General Auditing Commission (GAC). The objective is to provide a forum that promotes integrity standards in the public and private sectors through effective collaboration, coordination and review, to support the fight against corruption in a holistic, systematic and sustainable manner and to recommend effective policy promulgation, coordination and implementation mechanisms to advance good governance.
In a related development, the National Elections Commission (NEC) on Wednesday hosted a one-day inter-party consultative committee (IPCC) meeting. The meeting was necessary to inform the political parties about the progress made by the Commission, relative to its communication to the authorities about the non-feasibility of the dates in notices received from the House of Representative to conduct the four by-elections as a result of the special senatorial elections.
The Commission also informed the political parties that finding a new date for the by-elections is inextricably linked to the sourcing and delivery of funding, US$1.7 million, to the Commission for the by-elections.
To date the Commission has engaged the House of Representatives on the urgency of their action to effect a change in the date and their approval of funds for the conduct of the four by-elections in Bong, Nimba, Grand Gedeh and Bomi counties.