Africa-Press – Liberia. The biometric voter registration exercise is going ‘very’ slowly, and in the process denying several eligible voters to register to later exercise their franchise in the October 10 polls, say Dr. Francien Chenoweth-Richardson and Madam Yahsyndi Martin-Kpehe.
Dr. Richardson is Professor of Psychology in the United States and the lead presenter now on Spoon Talk, while Madam Martin-Kpehe is a teacher, humanitarian and a social activist.
The two Liberian women based in the United States of America, are staunch supporters of Mr. Alexander Benedict Cummings of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), and by extension the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP).
They are currently in Liberia to obtain their voter registration cards to gain eligibility for the upcoming October 10 Presidential and Legislative Elections.
Sharing their experience in an exclusive interview with FrontPage Africa on Friday, Dr. Richardson and Madam Martin-Kpehe said at some registration centers in Nimba County where they registered, election staff often complain they have run out of materials or the equipment malfunctioned.
As the results, many eligible voters who had queued in to obtain their biometric voter registration cards (BVR) are being turned away, creating a possibility for some of them to not form part of the exercise at all. They said this is tantamount to voter suppression.
“First of all, when we went to several registration centers. The first place we went to, we were told that they didn’t have enough materials to print the cards, which tells me that there is a problem with the whole election process,” Dr. Richardson recounted.
“We went to the second place and registered. This is because if we weren’t persistent, we would have not registered. There were people who weren’t persistent enough to stay there. Some people left. Who is to tell if those Liberians that left will be coming back? They were denied their democratic rights to vote because there were no voting card materials.”
Mrs. Martin-Kpehe added: “We were told the day before, that another political party had attacked the people that were trying to register because they are foreigners. And we went to register and they told us that there were no supplies, that the printing materials had finished.”
Explaining further, she said: “We left and went to Saclepea to register. We were able to register, but other people weren’t able to register. Even where the process is ongoing smoothly, they closed at 4pm. Although, the schedule says they should close at 6pm. So, I think there’s something wrong with that. It is a voter suppression in every aspect of that.”
Stressed budget, some registrants insincerity undermining BVR
Liberia’s National Elections Commission (NEC) is under considerable pressure to smoothly conduct the October 10 crucial elections, the first post-war polls to be entirely conducted by the Liberians themselves.
Though previous polls were held under the auspices of the NEC, it was heavily supported [both security and logistical] by the UN Peacekeeping force, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
Aware of this huge task, the NEC, amid mounting opposition, decided to introduce biometric voter registration for the first time, turning its back on the optical manual registration (OMR) to fight against double registrants or duplication which has marred previous elections.
But since the launch of the BVR exercise, there have been reports that in some areas, unscrupulous people are beating the system to register twice.
Speaking on this, Dr. Richardson said she observed the NEC did not put in place robust mechanisms to stop people from duping the system. She said at a registration center, NEC staff were not marking the fingers of several registrants with the indelible ink. In addition, they were not observing the 6pm deadline to te extent that she and her colleague had to beg to register, even after arriving at 3pm.
The NEC staff, she claimed stated they were closing sooner to have ample time to pack off and get prepared for the next day.
“We were persistent because we only had one shot here. It was around 3pm, and they told us that the center was closed. We actually had to beg them. We begged for our democratic rights because we didn’t want to come back the next day.”
Further explaining their ordeal, Dr. Richardson stated: “We have planned to get or card that day. But some left people left because there was huge argument. There was man who said he was leaving. This leads me to the point that this electoral process is not going well. People are being denied of their democratic right to vote, and the staff marked my hands with a yellow ink, maybe to discourage me to go to another center, but she didn’t do it to others who came after us. I watched.”
The budget was cut drastically, and the approved budget is slowly being disbursed, according to NEC Chairperson Davidetta Brown Lansannah, in one of her press conferences.
Dr. Richardson said, the drastic cut was unacceptable and could be another major stumbling block to the smooth execution of the electoral processes, beginning with the registration exercise.
The pair called on the NEC to ensure these loopholes are addressed for peaceful and transparent elections.
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