• Carter Center Issues Preliminary Statement on Liberia Election, Sources: FrontPage Africa, The Carter Center and The New Dawn
• NDI Makes Recommendations to Guide Potential Runoff Election, Sources: FrontPage Africa and NDI
• Voters must reflect elections’ results, Sources: EUEOM and The New Dawn
• ALPO urges Liberians to wait for official poll results, Source: The New Dawn
• Lack of Infrastructure Impacts Polls – BFF, Sources: FrontPage Africa, INSIGHT, and The ANALYST
• Justice Ministry Report Linked Land Commission to Illegal Land Sale in Louisiana, Source: Daily OBSERVER
• Police, armed robbers exchange fire, Source: The New Dawn
• Liberia changes the guard, Source: Mail & Guardian

LIBERIA MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

Carter Center Issues Preliminary Statement on Liberia Election, Sources: FrontPage Africa, The Carter Center and The New Dawn

In a preliminary statement issued Thursday, The Carter Center commended Liberians for the calm and peaceful atmosphere of their nation’s October 10 election. No matter the outcome of the election, it will result in a transfer of power from one democratically elected government to another for the first time in the lives of many Liberians. This moment, according to the Carter Center, marks an important turning point for the nation’s democracy, and the Liberian people have shown a clear desire for a peaceful and smooth transfer of power. The Carter Center says it was honored to observe the entire pre-election process and commends the Liberian people for their clear enthusiasm and determination to peacefully express their will at the ballot box. The pre-election period was characterized by a peaceful campaign, transparent preparations, and logistical challenges.

The Center’s observers, who were deployed across all 15 of Liberia’s counties on Election Day, report that the opening, polling, closing, and counting processes were generally conducted according to procedure in the approximately 145 polling places they visited. In most of these locations, materials were delivered on time, and polls opened on time. However, observers across most counties reported difficulty in locating voters on the Final Registration Roll in some polling places.

In what appeared to be a related problem, observers reported that ineffective queue management, mainly in large precincts, affected the orderly flow of the polling, creating confusion among voters and long lines throughout the day. It is important to note, however, that Liberia’s election process is still ongoing and that The Carter Center cannot issue an overall assessment until several important steps – including any dispute resolution – are concluded.

NDI Makes Recommendations to Guide Potential Runoff Election, Sources: FrontPage Africa and NDI

The National Democratic Institute’s (NDI) election observer delegation for Liberia’s 2017 elections says in the spirit of international cooperation and in light of a potential presidential runoff election, the NDI delegation has advanced several recommendations on steps that can be taken in the short-term to further enhance confidence in the electoral process and foster peaceful, credible polls.

The NDI wants the National Elections Commission (NEC) to verify provisional results as they come in and release them in a timely fashion to enhance citizen confidence in the transmission and tabulation process; provide polling-place level results in an easily analyzable format on NEC’s website; provide clear, frequent updates to the public as a means of enhancing transparency in the transmission and tabulation of final results; ensure the security of electronic transmission of results between Magistrate Offices and the NEC headquarters;  and adjudicate complaints and disputes addressed to the NEC in an expeditious, transparent, and impartial manner.

The NDI further want the NEC to refine and clarify procedures for polling officials to manage voters with registration cards that are not found on the roll, and ensure voter identification officers are provided clear, written instructions on those procedures; provide a refresher course to voting precinct presiding officers and voting precinct queue controllers to better direct voters to the correct queues associated with their polling places; clearly mark polling places within precincts; consider putting in place measures for polling officials to record the number of voters who voted at each polling place on the Record of the Count Forms, and to reconcile that number with the number of ballots cast at each polling place during the counting process; bolster CVE efforts, especially in rural areas, on how to mark the ballot and how to find polling places within voting precincts; and expedite the procurement, printing and delivery of ballots to ensure they arrive in polling places in advance of election day. Preliminary Statement

Voters must reflect elections’ results, Sources: EUEOM and The New Dawn

The EU Elections Observation Mission (EUEOM) here has urged political parties and officials of the National Elections Commission (NEC) to keep the positive role and ensure the will of the voters is reflected in the polls’ results. An EU statement issued on Thursday in Monrovia indicates that Liberian voters have shown strong desire to be part of the democratic process by their participation in great numbers in the polls.

“Political parties and the election administration should keep their positive role and ensure the will of the voters is reflected in the elections results. Also, the notable efforts made by the Liberian observer’s organizations show commitment to ensuring the transparency of the elections,” said Maria Arena, EUEOM chief observer.

The press statement quotes Ms. Arena as saying that the 81 EU election observers reported from over 297 polling places in rural and urban areas in all counties, noting, “Liberians turned out in large numbers already early in the morning. The Election Day can be described as clam and adequately conducted by the National Elections Commission. Before that, the election campaign was nearly peaceful.”

ALPO urges Liberians to wait for official poll results, Source: The New Dawn

Supporters of political parties in the country have been urged not to take to the streets but to patiently wait on the official poll results from the National Elections Commission (NEC). The Association of Liberian Professionals (ALPO) made the appeal in a statement issued Thursday.

ALPO wants political parties’ supporters to remain calm and patiently wait for the official election results by the NEC chairman, Cllr. Jerome Korkoya to avoid confusion in the country.

Lack of Infrastructure Impacts Polls – BFF, Sources: FrontPage Africa, INSIGHT, and The ANALYST

Better Future Foundation (BFF), a proponent of Liberia Democracy Sustainability Platform (LDSP) has applauded the mass turnout of citizens for Tuesday’s presidential and legislative elections. In a release issued in Monrovia Thursday, BFF, however, expressed regret that such mass turnout could not be translated into an inclusive participation of all registered voters in the polls.

The youth and student advocacy group also described as unfortunate the gross lack of infrastructure in the country to the extent that some of the facilities that played host to the elections were unfit to serve the mass turnout, leaving many registered voters particularly pregnant women, nursing/lactating mothers, the elderly, and physically challenged among others totally disenfranchised.

Justice Ministry Report Linked Land Commission to Illegal Land Sale in Louisiana, Source: Daily OBSERVER

After a probe by the Justice Ministry, the Liberia Land Authority (LAA) has been linked to an alleged illegal land sale in the Township of Louisiana in Montserrado County, according to reports. The report further claimed that the township commissioner, Solomon Miller, helped in the ‘illegal’ sale of 19 acres of land and a USD3,000 attempted bribery.

Police, armed robbers exchange fire, Source: The New Dawn

Police say they have exchanged fire with three armed robbers wounding two in Brewerville, Montserrado County, following a tip-off from a family of being attacked by armed robbers. The robbers admitted to their involvement in attacking the residents of Brewerville, and also took the blame for other recent incidents in Electoral District #17. The police say they retrieved all arms and ammunition used by the suspects.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ON LIBERIA

Liberia changes the guard, Source: Mail & Guardian

As Liberians vote this week for their new president, the country must simultaneously deal with another seismic change to its political landscape: the complete withdrawal of the United Nations peacekeeping mission after more than 14 years on the ground.

It is a coming-of-age moment for Liberia. Although the country and its outgoing president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, have been widely praised for maintaining peace and stability in the wake of an especially brutal civil war that ended in 2003, they have done so with the assistance of up to 15 000 peacekeepers at any one time. Johnson Sirleaf’s successor, whoever that may be, will not have that luxury.

Johnson Sirleaf herself acknowledges just how important the peacekeeping mission has been. Last month in New York, she addressed the UN general assembly. It was her swansong as president of Liberia, so she took the opportunity to gloat a little about the progress made during her two terms and 12 years in charge: how the economy has grown, how life expectancy is up, how the civil service is working again, and how power is about to be handed over in a peaceful election for the first time in Liberian history.