GBARNGA — Voters are turning out in force in Gbarnga for Liberia’s presidential election on Tuesday, October 10. Polling stations in Gbarnga are having long lines of some of the over 234, 000 registered registered voters that snaked around the city, including a large portion of first-time voters.
At the Lelekpayea School in District Two, Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor came out to vote, calling her vote a “highly emotional” moment.
“I’m so, so happy to cast my vote. I’m happy for the weather. I’m encouraging all residents of Bong County to remain peaceful, ” she said.
Almost all the presidential candidates have called on Liberians to be peaceful during the election, and at polling stations around Gbarnga, many have joined the line, some with their children in tow as Tuesday’s vote was declared a national holiday.
One voter named Prince Kollie told FrontPageAfrica he had gone to the polling place at 5:30 AM, in order to make sure he was one of the first in line when polling places opened at 8 AM.
“The youth were a little bit rowdy, they wanted to overtake everyone in the queue, so we moved to another polling station,” says Kollie. After he moved to another polling places in his area, he says the process was peaceful and went smoothly.
“I was glad they were assisting the old age people to go vote,” although he says some people complained that there were a lot of elderly people, who were put at the top of the queue. He finally voted at 8:30AM.
There have been reports of people being turned away because their registration number was different from the one on their voter card. Others were not listed on the voter’s roll.
