Monrovia – Following the 2017 general elections and a lessons learnt exercise held by the National Elections Commission (NEC) in February 2018 partners today signed off on a workplan for 2018 that will continue to strengthen the institutional capacity of Liberia’s electoral management body and engage in wider reform in the policy and legislative areas.
During the next year international partners will support reform of the NEC’s asset management system and rehabilitation of warehousing facilities to ensure existing and new equipment purchased in advance of the 2017 elections is catalogued and managed securely. The plan is to renovate all 19 warehousing facilities of the NEC and to modernise the existing systems and automate the control mechanisms for managing these assets.
A further set of activities will focus on the post election period and includes support for the policy and regulatory environment and reforms. As international and national election observers release their final reports and recommendations on the 2017 general elections the NEC and its stakeholders will have access to resources to review policies and legislation including the legal precedents determined by the Supreme Court in its judgments in 2017 to further improve the electoral framework for the conduct of elections.
The European Union Election Observation Mission released its final report at the end of May 2018 and it included 23 recommendations to enhance the electoral system and legal framework. These will provide the basis for policy discussions going forward, together with recommendations from other observer groups, to work to improve the overall electoral system even further.
Support to the 2015-2018 Liberia Elections cycle project is a partnership between the National Elections Commission, United Nations Development Programme, European Union, Sweden, Ireland and Canada with a fund of USD16 million to strengthen the conduct of elections in Liberia.