DAVID A. YATES
Africa-Press – Liberia. Alexander Cummings, a presidential candidate of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), was notably absent from a crucial electoral forum convened by the National Elections Commission (NEC) yesterday.
Cummings’ absence yesterday came after he had a few hours before the meeting to publicly express his lack of confidence in the electoral body’s leadership.
While the meeting, which had President Goerge Weah and other prominent opposition leaders in attendance, was ongoing, Cummings was sharing photos of himself on social media, walking while urging Liberians to exercise regularly.
“Let us walk together into a new and healthy future. Fixing Liberia is also about keeping Liberians healthy. Regular exercise, especially walking, helps to keep us healthy, physically ready, and mentally strong,” Cummings, who is one of the three frontrunners for the October 10 polls, said.
“Even though the economic conditions are stressful, walking regularly helps reduce stress, enables blood circulation, strengthens leg muscles, and has positive effects on the heart and bone health, especially as we age,” he added.
Cummings then threw out a challenge, calling on Liberians to join him every Wednesday for at least 30-40 minutes, saying: “If you can do it daily, that is even better.”
Cummings, however, did not miss the meeting alone. His Collaborating Political Parties did not send any high profile figure including his Vice running mate.
Notable politicians who attended were Senator Jeremiah Koung and Tiawan Gongloe of the Liberian People’s Party, among several others.
Koung, who is a running mate of former Vice President Joseph Boakai of the Unity Party, noted that his party’s most important request is for the Commission to count the October 10 polls votes by electoral districts.
“We have few concerns and we communicated that to the NEC,” the Nimba County Senator said. “Our concern is the announcement of results and, for the purpose of transparency, the results of the presidential elections be given by electoral districts.”
Gongloe, a former Solicitor General from the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration, noted that his party was cautioning the President and his government to make available money for the conduct of elections on October 10 polls.
According to him it is “more expensive to fight war than to spend on elections.”
The meeting with the electoral body was also called for by the ECOWAS and UN missions, and is part of an “ongoing dialogue” initiated by the NEC to promote inclusive, credible, peaceful, and non-violent elections, as enshrined in the Farmington River Declaration recently signed by registered political parties and independent aspirants.
Davidetta Browne Lansanah, chairperson of the electoral body, noted that despite the conduct of the biometric voter registration process, the election will be manually conducted, just as it was done in the past.
“While the commission has transitioned to biometric voter registration, the voting in the October 10 elections will be done manually as it has been in the past,” Lansanah noted.
“While we strive to adapt to global phenomena, technological advancement, the process will be done incrementally,” she added.
Lansanah however promised that October elections will be free, fair and credible and challenged politicians to work along with the electoral body to reduce the pre-elections tension.
Meanwhile, Lansanah has informed the public 27,000 duplicate records discovered during the voter registration process were created by 3,636 people who double-registered.
“Let me clarify at this point the 27,000 duplicate records were created of 3,634 persons who registered more than once meaning that number is multiple registrants because in the media there is some confusion,” she said.
Lansanah’s clarity comes after the Commission, while announcing the final voter registration figure in July, did not elaborate much on the 27,000 duplicate records.
The Commission has then announced a little over 2.4 million Liberians as the final voter registration figures.
Lansanah also announced that the Commission applied extra efforts to investigate underage registrants to have them removed from the final voter roll.
“During that process, parents and guardians confirmed that their kids were underage and turned over their voter ID for removal from the final roll.
“At this point we have received most of the funds required to conduct elections,” Lansanah noted. “We are working with the government to provide the remaining funds.”
Meanwhile, the Commission has announced August 15 as the launch of the Civic and Voter Education (CVE) campaign for the October 10 elections.
The campaign, the Commission noted, is aimed at enhancing the political participation of eligible voters.
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