• NEC Officials Meet Senate Today, Source: Daily OBSERVER
• Full FRR Clean-up Unlikely Before December 26?, Source: Daily OBSERVER
• I’m guilty by association –Veep Boakai, Source: The New Dawn
• SEC Holds Dialogue on Managing CSDFs, Source: Daily OBSERVER
• Regional Leaders Task NEC To Implement Supreme Court’s Recommendations, Source: GNN Liberia
• Liberia will hold its presidential election next week. Here’s what you need to know, Source: The Washington Post
• 57 Liberians stranded at Cantonments Police Station, Source: Graphic Online
• Dubai Cares launches a 2-year program in post-Ebola Liberia to help children return to school, Source: The Gulf Today

NEC Officials Meet Senate Today, Source: Daily OBSERVER

The Daily Observer reports that the current debate on whether the National Elections Commission (NEC) has the sole authority to fix the current date (December 26) for the presidential runoff election and an update on the implementation of the Supreme Court’s mandate will be top items on the Senate’s agenda when NEC chairman Cllr. Jerome Korkoya and the Board of Commissioners face that body today at 12 noon. Senate secretary Nanborlor Sengbeh has confirmed the appearance of the NEC officials and the possibility of the new runoff date taking center stage, adding that the House of Representatives has already raised concern on the electoral commission’s action. Read more

Full FRR Clean-up Unlikely Before December 26?, Source: Daily OBSERVER

The Daily Observer reports that as the Supreme Court reviews the arguments presented by both sides — the National Elections Commission (NEC) and the ruling Unity Party (UP) — following its hearings into the Bill of Information filed by the UP, it appears highly unlikely that the mandate given by the High Court to have the NEC clean up the Final Registration Roll(FRR) and publish same at all election magisterial offices and polling places around the country will be accomplished before the new December 26 runoff date announced by the NEC.

In its argument before the High Court Monday, the NEC claimed that the clean-up of the FRR had attained an 85 percent completion rate which, by its own estimation, would be completed 100 percent before the runoff with a mere 7 days remaining to its unilaterally declared date of December 26.

Speaking to the Daily Observer after the Supreme Court hearings Monday, an official of the governing party questioned the veracity of averments made by the NEC to the effect that the clean-up of the FRR had already achieved 85 percent completion up to the date of the hearings yesterday, noting that given the enormity of the task at hand measured against time constraints, it appears unlikely that the December 26 date would hold. Mr. Cole Bangalu stated that in the wake of the High Court ruling, a meeting called by the NEC to address this very issue ended inconclusively as a result of the NEC chairman blatant refusal to produce the FRR, which he insisted had been cleaned and stood in no further need of any clean-up. Read more

I’m guilty by association –Veep Boakai, Source: The New Dawn

The standard bearer of the governing Unity Party (UP), Vice President Joseph Boakai blames strained relationship between him and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on his association with his party chairman Wilmot Paye and the chairman emeritus, Senator Varney Sherman.

Appearing on a local radio talk-show on Monday in Monrovia, Vice President Boakai says people that are being considered as opposition to President Sirleaf and occupy top positions in the party whom he’s close to is the reason of his alleged political prosecution.

“The President and I started our friendship back in the days of the 60s at the College of West Africa where I was both janitor and student. In fact, I took care of her children and her husband knew me very well. Because of the close relationship, she encouraged me to have worked with Finance Ministry when she was the deputy minister but I recommended a friend. So, our relationship is not today’s thing. I’m guilty simply by association. People like Cllr. Varney Sherman and Wilmot Paye, who are considered as opposition and are leaders in the party, they are my friends. As a leader, you have to be a good follower which I have done in the case of the President,” Boakai said. Read more

SEC Holds Dialogue on Managing CSDFs, Source: Daily OBSERVER

A one-day national roundtable discussion on issues affecting the implementation of County Social Development Funds (CSDFs) was over the weekend organized by the Society for Environmental Conservation (SEC) in Paynesville, outside Monrovia. Participants from Grand Gedeh, Montserrado, River Gee, and Sinoe counties focused on government’s role, its responsibilities, challenges, and recommendations in the implementation of CSDFs, and ensuring gender mainstreaming to access and participate in all facets of its implementation. Read more

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ON LIBERIA

Regional Leaders Task NEC To Implement Supreme Court’s Recommendations, Source: GNN Liberia

West African leaders have urged the National Elections Commission (NEC) of Liberia to implement the Supreme Court’s recommendations, heading into the presidential run-off. The regional leaders, according to a press release from the Liberian Embassy in Abuja, made the call in a Final  Communiqué  at the end of the 52nd Ordinary Session of Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The Summit convened on  December 16, 2017 in Abuja, Nigeria, under the chairmanship of Mr. Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe, President of Togo.

Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia and 13 other ECOWAS leaders and their duly mandated representatives, after participating in a day-long meeting of open and closed door sessions, adopted and signed the Final Communique at the end of the Summit.

According to the release, the ECOWAS leaders through a 68-count Final Communique, while taking note of the December 26, 2017 presidential run-off, urged NEC to implement the recommendations of the Supreme Court to ensure a peaceful and transparent election. Read more

Liberia will hold its presidential election next week. Here’s what you need to know, Source: The Washington Post

After a delay of over a month, Liberia will move ahead and hold a runoff presidential election on Dec. 26. The contest pits George Weah, a retired soccer star and junior senator, against Joseph Boakai, septuagenarian vice president. Boakai was outpolled in the first round in October and appears to be the underdog.

Originally slated for Nov. 7, the second round of balloting was delayed following an unsuccessful judicial challenge by the Liberty Party, whose candidate, Charles Brumskine, alleged fraud, and finished a distant third with less than 10 percent of the vote. An elected president has not transferred power to another in Liberia since 1944.

This is an important milestone in Liberia’s democratic transformation since the end of civil war in 2003. The great challenge, as Liberian politician and academic Amos Sawyer noted in 2005, is shifting the country’s political mind-set from “zero-sum politics to one that embraces tolerance, accommodation and coalition-building.” Read more

57 Liberians stranded at Cantonments Police Station, Source: Graphic Online

Fifty-seven Liberians in Ghana who besieged the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for 32 days, demanding to be resettled in Europe, have been left stranded at the Cantonments Police Station in Accra. The group, including 35 women, five children and 17 men, had besieged the UNHCR offices with their luggage and water, demanding to be resettled in a country other than Ghana and their home country, Liberia.

Since the UNHCR could not meet their demand, they lived outside the walls of the organisation without returning to their homes at the Budumburam Refugee camp near Kasoa. After efforts to get them to return to their base failed, the UNHCR called the police and they were sent to the Cantonments Police Station last Thursday. Read more

Dubai Cares launches a 2-year program in post-Ebola Liberia to help children return to school, Source: The Gulf Today

Dubai Cares, part of Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, has announced a two-year program in Ebola-affected Liberia that will provide assistance to 8,400 children by enabling them to return to school. The program titled ‘Liberia Learning Initiative’ is part of Dubai Cares’ Education in Emergencies strategy which supports the development and piloting of innovative approaches to reaching children affected by epidemics, conflict or natural disasters.

The Ebola epidemic outbreak resulted in a disruption in the education of around 900,000 primary school-aged children in Liberia. To this date, around 100,000 of these children still remain out of school. The AED 2,093,895 (USD 570,000) program, launched in partnership with ‘The Luminos Fund’, focuses on reducing the number of out-of-school children and supports their reintegration into the formal education system. During the first year, the program aims to establish 4-5 months long accelerated learning classes, designed specifically for children who missed school for a prolonged period of time due to the epidemic. The second year of the program will target children who have been out of school for three years or longer. The program will benefit children in grade 1-3 transitioning to formal public schools in grade 4. Read more