Africa-Press – Liberia. Integrity Watch Liberia (IWL), one of the country’s prominent civil society organizations, believes that granting financial autonomy to the National Elections Commission (NEC) would significantly enhance its effectiveness and independence.
Such autonomy, IWL noted, would enable the NEC to enforce compliance, particularly in terms of political party campaign financing during elections.
“By making the NEC a financially autonomous entity, a lot of issues, including its capacity to be efficient and effective in delivering on its mandate will be addressed,” he said in a recommendation.
During a one-day lessons-learned conference, Harold Aidoo, the Executive Director of the organization, emphasized that many violations during elections are committed by incumbent parties, who often manipulate funding to restrict the NEC.
As such, Aidoo recommended that making the NEC financially autonomous would address various issues and improve its efficiency and effectiveness in fulfilling its mandate, stressing the importance of national conversations that extend beyond elections and critically reflect on broader societal problems related to non-compliance and the lack of respect for the rule of law.
He also recommended reviewing and reforming regulations to strengthen the NEC’s sanction mechanism — suggesting that the role of compliance monitoring of political parties be delegated to a third institution that has the capacity to perform this task.
“The independent reports generated by this institution could then be used as a tool to enforce compliance,” he said.
Approximately seven months ago, Integrity Watch Liberia launched the Strengthening Political Accountability Project (SPAP), which focused on monitoring political party campaign financing. The objective of the program was to enhance financial compliance among political parties in Liberia and to strengthen civil society and media oversight of expenditure.
The organization aimed to ensure compliance among all parties and strengthen the enforcement of campaign finance regulations in order to create a level playing field and promote a more accountable and transparent electoral process in the country.
Integrity Watch-Liberia organized the day-long conference in collaboration with the National Elections Commission (NEC) and other stakeholders. The event brought together representatives from political parties, civil society actors, and international partners from across Liberia.
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