MONROVIA – The Biometric Voter Registration in rural Liberia is raising eyebrows on the credibility of the exercise as several children have reportedly successfully registered and obtained their voting cards.
By: Mae Azango, [email protected]
Recently in Foya, Lofa County, a boy, bearing the name Nyumah Saah, who appeared to be no more than 12 years of age, was registered in District 10. The registration was done at the registration center bearing code: 21003. He was issued voter ID numbered: 01615241696. On the card, his date of birth is stated as 01/01/2005, which makes him 18 years and a first-time voter.
FrontPageAfrica has not been able to establish who’s behind the registering of the minor. However, Mr. Boakai Yama, an activist and Lofa Coordinator of a civil society group, HeForShe, told FrontPageAfrica from Lofa via telephone that there have been five other instances where children were found with voting ID cards during this ongoing registration in the county. These ID cards, he said, were issued by the staff of the National Elections Commission.
However, the National Elections Commission has said that Biometric Voter Registration will expose all electoral registration malpractices, including multiple registrations and underage registration.
Addressing a recent press conference, National Election Commission Chairperson, Mrs. Davidetta Browne Lansanah said multiple registrations and registration of under-age children will be detected by the Biometric Voter Registration process.
“The Commission reiterates its earlier advice to Liberians 18 years and above not to attempt to register more than once. It is a crime to get engage in multiple registrations and all perpetrators will be caught by the BVR system and turned over to the Justice Ministry for prosecution. Besides, such multiple registrants will be automatically deactivated by the BVR system. In other words, you could lose the opportunity to exercise your franchise during the 10 October 2023 General Elections,” she said.
Madam Lansanah further said the deduplication or adjudication of the voter registration records from the six counties in Phase One is ongoing at the NEC Data Center. And the aim of this exercise is to remove all instances of multiple registrations and other data cleansing processes, including the identification and removal of underage registrants. “The Commission assures Liberians that the BVR system possesses the capacity to detect these instances during the abovementioned exercise. The Commission has opened its doors to all observers and stakeholders, including political party technicians that are duly accredited by the NEC, to observe the deduplication and adjudication process,” she said
However, the National Coordinator for HeForShe Crusaders Liberia, Mr. Tamba F. J. Johnson, frowned on the increase in report of children being issued legitimate voter registration cards in the country. He disagreed with the NEC on the issue of detecting the ages of voters to determine a child from an adult.
“Though the NEC chair has stated that they will verify double entries, but the system will not be able to identify the ages of children or people below 18 years. The lack of national security at centers to assist with the verification of people’s ages is equally contributing to the influx of children in the system,” he said
Mr. Johnson further said the 1986 Constitution of Liberia gives rights to only Liberians who are age 18 and older to be issued legitimate access to identification cards to enable them duly participate into the elections process. But having children issued legitimate voter cards by NEC staff doesn’t only violate/contravene the organic law of Liberia but further exposes the lack of professional handling and verification of people obtaining voter registration cards at various centers.
The human rights advocates further mentioned that, though the online registration app is good, that process is being used by smart kids to enter the system.
“Many of these temporary staff of NEC are not verifying but only interested to reach their 100 registrants daily as being prescribed by NEC. NEC’s weaknesses to penalize people who are trucking citizens from one point to another are equally contributing to children’s enlistment. HeForShe Crusaders Liberia has gathered the trucking of people in Lofa County, particularly in the Foya by would-be contestants. These trucked individuals will make decisions for an inheritance, constraining dwellers to live with the after results. We call on would-be aspirants to desist from trucking children into Centers and as well called on NEC to duly verified online registrants,” he said.