Ganta, Nimba County – With few hours to go before Liberia’s 2017 presidential and legislative elections, unorthodox long queues have started forming at various polling centers in Ganta, Nimba County as early as 5:00 AM.
Report by Selma Lomax, [email protected] and Franklin Doloquee, FPA Contributor
The queues are being formed mainly by women voters. They are hoping to be among the first to cast their vote. From first-time women voters to those bent with age, thousands descended upon polling centers long before dawn to cast their ballots.
“I really hope for a change of leadership, I really hope for a change in the way we do politics. I want corruption out of the country”, said a woman only identified as Mary, 42, at a Ganta polling station.
On Monday night, the women used various objects to form queues ahead of the opening of polls at 8:00am on Tuesday, October 10, 2017, as some showed up at their respective polling centers to keep vigil in a queue while others used stones, cement blocks, among other, items to secure spots in the queue.
A little over 2 million eligible voters are expected to cast their vote in today’s general elections, which will elect the next president of Liberia and 73 new members of representatives.
The presidential election is being contested by 20 candidates. From the Gbatu Peace Hut and Liberty Christian Institute polling centers in electoral district one, our reporters said scores of electorate started queuing Monday night just about six hours to the opening of the polls.
Our reporters also said some were keeping vigil in a queue, others came to the polling centers with various objects and items to form queues after which they left to their homes to catch some sleep and to return dawn Tuesday.
The situation, according to reports from our correspondents across the country, are no different in most polling centers.