Monrovia – With less than 21 days to the much anticipated October 10, 2017 Presidential and legislative elections, the Institute for Research and Democratic Development (IREDD) has embarked on a nationwide training for youth and vulnerable groups on how to detect and report early signs of conflicts.
The official kickoff of the training was held in Kakata on Tuesday September 19, 2017 bringing together nearly 100 persons representing different groupings including motorcyclists, Police officers, representatives of the National Elections Commission Margibi branch, community radio journalists and civil society organization amongst others.
At the start of the daylong training IREDD executive director said the exercise marked the opening of series of training workshops of a project that looks at the promotion of youth participation in the upcoming 2017 legislative and Presidential elections.
Mr. Harold M. Aidoo indicated that the workshop which is to be implemented in the 15 Counties of Liberia is embedded with a number of activities which include; awareness, sport tournament and other events to ensure that the voice of young people and their role in contributing to a peaceful election is guaranteed.
According to Aidoo the objective of the training is to ensure that the outcome of the 2017 elections is peaceful.
IREDD, in partnership with the government of Liberia, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) the United Nations Peace Building Office as well as the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) will work with the youths of several Counties to ensure that a space for working with the National Elections Commission and the Liberia National Police is created to enable the youths to play a proactive and major role in participating in elections peacefully.
Mr. Aidoo furthered that if the election is to be peaceful the contribution of the youths cannot be overlooked and cautioned youths to ensure that they contribute by monitoring early warning signs that have the propensity to create tension or ferment instability in the Country.
He said his organization will be working with the youths of the various Counties for the next four months between September and December to ensure that they work with the Police and the National Elections Commission to report incident of violence and issues that have the tendency to generate violence in their various communities in the Counties and make sure that they are not used as instrument of violence to cause trouble in the ensuing elections.
For his part, the Assistant Magistrate of Elections in Margibi County thanked IREDD for the initiative promising to work with the youths in ensuring that the elections are conducted in a peaceful manner.
Mr. Folton T. Yankee cautioned the participants to not allow themselves to be used by political parties by giving them misleading information relating to the workings of the National Elections Commission.
He stated that NEC does not favor any particular political party adding that the body does not carry on ‘cheating’ during the process as it does not determine results but rather announce results from the various polling places.
Mr. Yankee at the same time urged the participants to spread the message of peace to avoid electoral violence during and after the elections.
Meanwhile, participants of the training assured IREDD of their readiness to report early signs of conflicts to the Liberia National Police.