Tubmanburg – Thousands of eligible voters turned out during the early morning hours of Tuesday to cast their votes in the senatorial election in Bomi County with little or no knowledge on the National Referendum.
Five candidates including incumbent Senator Sando Dazoe Johnson of the opposition Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), former House Speaker Alex Tyler of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), Representative Edwin Melvin Snowe, Zoebon Norman, and Adama Soko Dorley are contesting for the senatorial seat in Bomi.
The senatorial election and the national referendum are being jointly conducted across the country today.
The four propositions of the referendum include: the reductions of the term of the President from six to five years; Senator from nine to seven years, Representative from six to five years, and dual citizenship.
These Propositions for amendment seek to affect Articles 45, 46, 47, 48 and 50 of the 1986 Constitution of Liberia.
Under a favorable weather condition, eligible voters in Tubmanburg were scene in long queues at various polling precincts to cast their ballots.
The voting precincts visited by FrontPage Africa in Tubmanburg include: the Gbalasuah Community Hall (Code # 03072) with three polling places, Bomi Administrative Building (Code #: 03074) with two polling places, Court House Moses Vincent Compound (Code #: 03075) with five polling places, and the Vai Town Cinema precinct (Code # 03076) with five polling centers.
Markets and other business centers appeared like a ghost town as marketers and others abandoned their normal routines or house chores to partake in the electoral process.
Officers of the Liberia National Police (LNP) and the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) were seen at voting precincts
Observations
Most of those seen at the various polling precincts were early women and first time voters.
The voters were going about casting their votes in a peaceful and orderly manner.
Representatives of most of the candidates and other civil society organizations accredited by the NEC were seated at the precincts monitoring the process.
Election workers and representatives of the various candidates jointly discouraged the compulsory wearing of nose masks for eligible voters to cast their votes.
Other eligible voters, who could not get to their respective voting precincts earlier, stormed the offices and homes of some of the candidates in the senatorial election to either beg for transportation or get onboard vehicles that have been hired by these candidates to take them to their respective precincts to cast their votes.
“I am here oh chief; I am lacking it for you at my voting center; but no car pay to go there. As for me, I don’t want anything else besides my car pay to go vote for you”, an unidentified disadvantaged youth stated before the campaign office of one of the candidates.
No idea on referendum
FrontPage Africa gathered that vast majority of the electorates had little or no idea on the national referendum.
They claimed that no awareness was made on the process and not a single sample paper of the referendum was distributed to eminent citizens, including chiefs, elders and community chairpersons prior to the voting, to educate their people on the referendum.
“My son, we don’t know nothing about the referendum; your will teach us or the people inside there will teach us how to do it”. Hawa Kallon, 45 years, stated.
Jackson Ballah, 57, states: “I only know about big umbrella, small umbrella-big chair and small chair on the referendum paper. But I don’t even know the meaning of it. If they can’t help or tell us the meaning of it inside there-for me, I will not vote for anything call referendum”.
Poll workers intervention
Poll workers are catching hell in educating or providing information to voters on the national referendum.
At the various polling precincts visited, inkers and other poll workers tasked with other responsibilities also busied themselves helping to sensitize the electorates on the referendum.
Some poll workers are imploring additional means or options to ensure that the voters partake in the national referendum.
“My brother, it is not easy. Everybody coming is asking questions on the referendum. We are doing multiple jobs at the same time we are educating them, but if you do not still understand-we allow you to bring someone you trust-either your daughter, son, brother or sister-to explain to you before you go to cast your vote”, a Presiding Officer at one of the precincts who spoke on condition of anonymity stated.
He continued: “Majority of the people who are coming here say, they do not understand the process”.
Time consuming
The poll workers disclosed that though voters have massively turnout to exercise their political franchise, the voting process is “a little bit slow” due to constraints they (poll workers) are faced with to educate “almost all of the voters” before they can cast their ballots.
“Even though they are turning out to vote and the placement of voters’ names in alphabetical order is making it easier for us to find their names, the process is consuming more time because, they keep asking questions about the referendum and we too we have to say something to them”, a female poll worker stated.
Voters’ angry
At one of the centers, an elderly voter angrily walked out of the precinct on grounds that, he has no understanding of the referendum.
“As for me, the same way they gave me their referendum paper, that’s the same way I left it and just throw it in the (ballot) box. The woman just explaining all kinds of things to me, but I can’t understand anything; what should I give myself hard time for”, the aggrieved voter stated.
Meanwhile, the polls are expected to be closed by 6PM to be followed by the counting of ballot papers.