Monrovia – The 2015 International Children Peace Prize Winner Abraham Keita has called on first-time voters in this year’s election to vote wisely and never allow politicians to use them to perpetrate violence during and after the election.
According to Liberia’s National Election Commission, out of the 2,183,683 register voters, first-time voters represent the highest with 22 percent in total.
Speaking with FrontPage Africa in downtown Monrovia Tuesday; Keita who is also a first-time voter said: “I want to urge first-time voters to vote wisely.”
“I want them to vote; not just to vote but because they that should vote to transform our common denominator which is Liberia”.
According to the 2015 International Children Peace Prize Winner, all throughout the pages of history young people are the power house of society.
With that, he pointed out that first-time voters have a cardinal role and that role he says will transform their lives of their future.
“I tell people October 10, is like Liberia’s day of the Pentecost.”
“And it is on October 10 that we will make a solemn decision that will transform our lives to say whether we want to continue making progress or we want to leave behind and not go forward. So young people are very cushioned in these elections”, Keita added.
Keita said he will be spreading the message of civility among first-time voters. He added that if someone supports one candidate and another person supports another candidate it does not means that they are enemies or should get into a fist fight but rather come together and celebrate the differences in their opinion.
“We must combat through ideas; we must combat through the pens and never through the bullets.”
“So I urge young people to be civil and I urge that when they go to vote they should vote Liberia and they should say that this vote that I am casting will determine the future that I want to live in.”
Although Keita says he does not sense post-election violence, he, however, urged the National Election Commission to conduct a free, fair and transparent election.
“We are calling on the National Election Commission to make the process as transparent as it can be.”
“Because when people start to feel that the election was rigged or certain processes were not adhered to or there were lapses in things that should have been put in place then it will create room for people to feel that they got cheated and as the matter of fact they will want to take to the streets,” Keita said.
“So I am saying young people and to Liberians in general that we should remain peaceful, we should convey our message through peace. And I want to tell people that we must meet hate with love. And that when hate and hate meet there will be destruction.”