The House of Representatives has instructed its Elections and Inauguration, Good Governance and Judiciary Committees to review the activities of the National Elections Commission (NEC) ahead of the ensuing legislative and presidential elections.
It followed a communication from Montserrado County’s electoral district #11 Representative, Richard Nagbe Koon.
Representative Koon said, ahead of the 2023 elections, it is only important that the body set standards that would make the process credible, ensuring the free participation of all Liberians, as guaranteed under article 77 of the 1986 Constitution of Liberia.
“In this light, I write to plea with you, my colleagues, to suspend the delineation exercise that should be conducted by National Election Commissions (NEC) as we move to elections in less than 9 months,” he said.
According to him, if measures are not properly instituted, scores of Liberians will find themselves in a strange district with no knowledge of any candidate on their ballot paper.
He said decisions made while conducting the delineation must be informed by census data.
“Honorable Speaker and fellow colleagues, we are yet to receive results from the 2022 National Housing and Population Census,” he lamented.
The Montserrado County district #11 representative said awaiting the voter’s registration data, that might start around March 20, 2023, “…we will be 6 months to elections after the collection of election data.
“Honorable Speaker and distinguish colleagues, we’re just 9 months to elections, and in order to afford all citizens the opportunity to participate in the up-coming electoral process, either by contesting or voting for candidates of their choice, I advise that we maintain the existing electoral demarcations,” he pleaded.
The lawmaker is of the belief that such will mitigate the problem of people being denied the right of contesting in a particular district after delineation is done.
Meanwhile the committees are expected to review the instrument and report within a period of two weeks.