The third in a series of external lessons learned conferences from the conduct of the 2020 special senatorial elections (SSE), Constitutional referendum and representative by-elections opened yesterday, Thursday, March 18, 2021 under the auspices of the National Elections Commission (NEC) in Tubmanburg, Bomi County.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Section of NEC is organizing the conferences with support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Speaking at the opening of the conference in Tubmanburg, the Deputy Executive Director for Programs, Attorney Nathan Garbie, said the lessons learned conferences are intended to take stock of the level of achievements and challenges from the 2020 special senatorial elections.
Attorney Garbie said the lessons learned conferences are also intended to get feedback from NEC staff and stakeholders on the conduct of the 2020 SSE and referendum. The NEC Deputy Executive Director of Programs said the information will be used to design and propose strategies on how the NEC can improve upon its service delivery, in consonance with its Constitutional mandate.
According to the Director for Monitoring and Evaluation Section at NEC, Ernestine Kenyan Bass, nearly 500 local government authorities and representatives from Grand Cape Mount, Gbarpolu and host Bomi counties, including superintendents, chiefs, zoes, paramount chiefs youth and women group’s leaders, religious and Islamic leaders are expected to participate in the on-going regional NEC lessons learned conferences. Director Bass said the final in the series of the four regional lessons learned conferences takes place in Gbarnga, Bong County, in April of next month.
In a related development, the Hearing Officer in the Sinoe County election dispute action case of irregularities, Stanislaus Wisseh has ruled, declaring Augustine Chea of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) as Senator-elect from the December 8, 2020 special senatorial elections in Sinoe County. Hearing Officer Wisseh in his ruling said the complainant, Scotland Brehema, failed to prove election irregularities to overturn the result.
However, lawyers representing the complainant, Grace Scotland Brehama, of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), have announced an appeal to the Board of Commissioners, challenging the ruling of its Hearing Officer Wisseh.