The Legal Section of the National Elections Commission (NEC) will this Friday begin to conduct a two-day Legal Awareness Forum in the City of Gbarnga, Bong County.
A statement from the Legal Section of NEC, issued Wednesday 21 October 2020 says 150 stakeholders, including county attorneys and judges, local and traditional leaders from the fifteen political sub-divisions of Liberia will form a part of the discussions. Other stakeholders from civil society organizations, including women and youth groups, academic institutions and faith-based organizations as well as the disabled community, are expected to be in attendance.
The Legal Section of NEC says the overriding objective of the legal awareness forum is to increase legal practitioners and the electorate’s understanding on the basis for conducting the Special Senatorial Election (SSE), Constitutional Referendum and the by-elections, jointly slated for 8 December 2020.
Building the confidence in the electoral management body’s ability to conduct free, fair and transparent elections on 8 December 2020, enhancing citizen’s participation in the democratic process and providing practical information of the legal process in election to reduce the number of complaints, especially during the post elections period, will form part of the objective, the NEC Legal Section statement says.
Sensitizing citizens about pursuing non-violent elections and ensuring equitable and increased participation in all aspects of the electoral processes and sustained engagements with the legal practitioners and voters are paramount and effective mechanism to building an informed democratic society, the Legal Section of NEC statement noted.
In a related development, the Communications Section of the National Elections Commission on Thursday, 22 October 2020 conducted the second in a two-day series the 2020 Election Reporting Journalists Coverage training, focusing on understanding campaign procedures, offenses, and expenses and election-day news reporting.
Nearly 75 elections reporting journalists from Bong, Lofa, Grand Gedeh, Margibi, Maryland and Nimba County participated in the validation of the Code of Conduct for media practitioners, mainly election reporting journalists, under the sponsorship of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in collaboration with the Press Union of Liberia (PUL).