The Elections Coordinating Committee (ECC), a platform of civil society organizations that observes all aspect of elections in Liberia, has deployed observers across the 15 counties to witness the voter registration process. Today we are issuing our third update, which follows upon our two previous updates released on the voter registration process. This third update covers the middle, or second phase, of the voter registration exercise from Saturday, February 18 through Thursday February 23.
Overall, reports from ECC observers from all 15 counties show that registration is continuing across the entire country. While there continue to be some challenges such as problems with camera, there were fewer issues reported than at the beginning of the registration process. Also, political parties are now deploying more of their representatives to witness the voter registration process. ECC Observers continue to report that registration staff appear to be unevenly requiring applicants to provide proof of eligibility.
Methodology
The ECC has deployed 89 total observers – one county coordinator per county for each of the 15 counties (with an additional coordinator for Montserrado County) – and electoral district observer for each of the 73 electoral districts. All ECC observers were carefully selected and thoroughly trained by the ECC as well as accredited by the National Elections Commission (NEC).
All 89 observers were instructed to observe at a single registration center throughout the day on three specific days – Saturday February 18, Tuesday February 21, and Thursday, February 23 – in their assigned county or electoral district. On each observation day, every observer sent in four observation reports based on a comprehensive checklist via coded text message using their mobile phones to the ECC’s Information Center (ECC-IC).
The ECC received a total of 257 reports from its observers during this second phase of voter registration with reports being sent in from all 15 counties (see Table 1). Unlike the first phase, all ECC Observers this time were permitted to observe because they had all receive accreditation badges from the NEC.
Findings
The ECC’s Voter Registration Update #3 provides comprehensive information on reports from the ECC’s observers during the second phase of the voter registration exercise (February 18 to 23).
Click to download detail: ecc-voter-registration-update-3