Monrovia – The National Youth Movement for Transparent Election (NAYMOTE) has launched a new project ‘Making the Youth Votes Count’ that is meant to bring young people together in making an inform decision.
According to the Program Director, Tracy F. Freeman said the overall goal of the project is to enhance youth participation in the Liberia’s electoral process by providing adequate civic and voter’s education to help them make an effective decision at the poll.
She made the disclosure Saturday at the official launching of ‘Making the Youth Votes Count’s Campaign Project at the Barnesville Estate Sport Patch in Monrovia.
She said the project will help promote effective citizens accountability mechanisms, adding the Making the Youth votes Count is expected to reach thousands of young voters across the country and to document campaign promises to ensure political accountability after election.
She further noted that the project is supported by the Open Society for West Africa (OSIWA) and implemented in five counties and over 300 communities.
Launching the project, the Director for Civic and Voter Education at the National Election Commission(NEC), Senesee Freeman noted that NEC is happy to partner with NAYMOTE in this project because the over two million register voter in the 2017 data contain 60 percent of young people between age 18 to 35.
He said this pending election will be count by young people, noting that is why there is a need to support such initiative so that young people can know how to vote, who to vote for why to vote?
He said the project is meant to help the youth make a decision that benefit their future and the future of the next generation by voting not base on personal relationship or interest but base on quality of the issues that the person will be bring to them.
“We want you to vote on the best quality of education, economic, infrastructure development and health, We want you to issues not personality and that is why we are happy to be with NAYMOTE so that youth votes are count,” Senesee Freeman Stressed.
“Attend candidates’ debate, listen to their platform and visit their social media platform so that you can get to know them and what they are doing, NEC cannot do it all and that is why we partner with civic society organizations to assist in some aspect,” he continued.
Speaking at the peogram, Former Superintendent of Montserrado County, Nyenekpn B. S. Barcon thanks the organization and that they are glad that NAYMOTE selected their community to provide quality that their youth need in leader.
She urged young people to vote a person that fear God, a leader with high the quality and one who have the ability t serves the country at heart.
Meanwhile, Rufus Ballah, the Administrative and Finance Associate of OSIWA affirmed that they are glad to be the supporter of the initiative ‘Making the Youth Votes Count’ and that they have only two objectives in the project.
He said their objectives are to increase youth participation in the election and help young voter make informed choices and lay the foundation for their increased participation in governance, and to hold elected officials and political parties accountable by documenting , printing and distributing campaign promises of winning party and candidates.
Report by Mafanta Kromah