Monrovia– The Elections Coordinating Committee (ECC), a civil society platform comprising 30 organizations that observes all aspects of elections in Liberia, has deployed observers across the 15 counties to witness the voter registration process. We are issuing our second update, which follows upon our first update released on Wednesday, February 1, 2017, the first day of voter registration. This second update covers the start, or first phase, of the voter registration exercise from Wednesday, February 1 through Monday, February 6. Overall, reports from ECC observers from all 15 counties show that registration is progressing across the entire country. There have been challenges, such as some centers not opening or issues with the cameras, but these have not been widespread. However, most registration centers lacked uniform security and political parties are generally not deploying their representatives to witness the voter registration process. Further, registration staff appears 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 an 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 – Wednesday, February 1, Friday, February 3, and Monday, February 6 – 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 Elections Data Hub.
The ECC received a total of 249 reports from its observers during this first phase of voter registration with reports being sent in from all 15 counties (see Table 1). However, six ECC observers on Wednesday, February 1, and one ECC Observer on Friday, February 3 were not permitted to observe as the NEC did not provide accreditation badges in time.
A download pdf version of the detailed report: