Monrovia – The Special Representative of the President of ECOWAS in Liberia, Ambassador Tunde Ajisomo, has made several recommendations aimed at creating ownership of the electoral process in Liberia.
Among recommendations made by Ambassador Ajisomo is the establishment of an Elections Offenses Commission to complement efforts of the National Elections Commission in expediting judgment on elections disputes.
He said such Commission would play a significant role in deepening electoral democracy in Liberia as being practiced by some ECOWAS Members-States such as Nigeria and Ghana.
Ambassador Ajisomo also underscored the need to promote and strengthen internal democracy in political parties by creating a level playing field for all members of political parties who desire to aspire for nominations to executive positions and parliamentary seats.
He also stressed that training and capacity development for security personnel involve risk analysis and mapping of potential conflict areas and that areas crime prone areas, especially where there are large unemployed youths be coded as high risk to inform the deployment of maximum security personnel during elections.
The ECOWAS Ambassador then urged the media to be neutral and objective during the electoral process and exhibit utmost responsibility to the country than to candidates, political parties or tribal affiliations.
Ambassador Ajisomo’s recommendations were contained in a keynote address delivered on his behalf Wednesday by Lola Osunlalu, Counselor/Special Assistant to the ECOWAS Ambassador to Liberia, at the start of a two-day Elections Security Coordination Workshop in Monrovia.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the National Elections Commission, Cllr. Jerome George Korkoya, said an election environment characterized by peace and adequate neutral security in and around voting places helps to facilitate a free, fair, and credible election while lessening problems that could compromise voters’ confidence, integrity of records, turnout or election results.
He said voters must be able to vote without fear; election monitors or observers must be able to observe without intimidation and candidates must be able to campaign free of apprehensions that their supporters may be intimidated or harmed on Election Day.
“It should also be noted that security is not cheap, so it is very important to make a predetermination of the cost associated with financing election security operations. Funds allocated for elections security must be properly managed and accounted for because the lack of adequate funding for election security or the mismanagement thereof seriously undermines the security of elections, for reasons that poorly motivated security officers are prone to negative influences. This is true in the case wherein resources are not provided on time, for it affects the timeline of the process,” The NEC Boss said.
Chairman Korkoya expressed the hope that the workshop will serve as a forum for the exchange of professional ideas for the creation of the kind of environment needed for the conduct of a free, fair, credible and peaceful election in 2017.
The workshop is aimed at addressing the challenges and importance of elections security management within the context of creating a sense of national ownership for the 2017 elections as well as ensuring that decision makers are fully abreast of issues associated with elections security and the guiding principles that would lead to the attainment of free, fair and transparent elections in 2017.
The workshop will also ensure that decision makers are fully committed to ensuring the timely approval of funds for elections in order to accord the Liberia National Police and other security actors the needed time to plan, organize and implement their operations for deployment during elections.
More than 40 participants from the Liberia National Police, Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, Drug Enforcement Agency and the National Fire service are attending the workshop. The workshop is funded by the European Union (EU) through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).