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The Ghanaian statesman congratulated the ECOWAS Commission for deploying a Technical Team to support the Liberia\u2019s National Elections Commission (NEC) in cleaning up the contentious Voter\u2019s Register, and acknowledged the tireless efforts of the ECOWAS Special Representative to Liberia, Ambassador Babatunde Ajisomo.<\/p>\n
He expressed his optimism that following compliance with the Supreme Court\u2019s decisions and the recommendations of the ECOWAS Technical Team, the stage was now set for the election to go ahead.<\/p>\n
Both candidates assured the Head of the ECOWAS Mission of their commitment to respect the electoral codes. On his part, he wished the two candidates well in the political contest.<\/p>\n
The NEC Chairman Jerome Korkoya, at a subsequent meeting with the ECOWAS Head of Mission, informed the meeting that the hard copies of the final registration roll (FRR) were being provided to the two political parties in addition to the public display of the document to guide voters on Election Day. The NEC Chair explained that electronic copies of FRR were not being provided in order to avoid tampering with the sensitive document.<\/p>\n
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In continuation of his engagements on Monday, the Head of ECOWAS Mission also received heads of other International Observation Group for purpose of information and experience sharing. Represented at the meeting were the African Union, European Union, Carter Center, the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA), and the US National Democratic Institute (NDI), co-led by Nigeria\u2019s former President Goodluck Jonathan.<\/p>\n
After listening to the presentation by the ECOWAS Technical Team, the international observers commended ECOWAS for its contribution and support towards the resolution of the politico-legal dispute, noting that while the Voter\u2019s Roll might not be perfect, it is a strong basis for the conduct of a credible election.<\/p>\n
The Head of ECOWAS Mission also addressed the 39 ECOWAS short-term observers on Monday before their deployment to different Liberian Counties for the Tuesday\u2019s election.<\/p>\n
He told them that \u201cbeyond our moral support for our Liberian brothers and sisters, our duty as observers is to ensure that international standards are adhered to during the conduct of the 26 December 2017 run-off Presidential election.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving suffered the horrors of a brutal civil war and the devastation of the Ebola pandemic, with a weak economy and high youth unemployment, Liberia today needs the concerted effort of all her citizens for the enormous task of reconstruction and nation building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to him, \u201cThe urgency of this task is further brought to the fore by the imminent departure of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) that has been here for the past 14 years. Thus, it is my hope that the political class will once again galvanise the citizenry, to come out en masse and peacefully cast their vote to enable this country proceed with its reconstruction.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her remarks, the ECOWAS Commissioner of Political Affairs, Peace and Security Mrs Halima Ahmed, urged the observer to be professional, neutral and unbiased in their task.<\/p>\n
The election will produce Liberia\u2019s next president to replace out-going President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a Nobel Laureate and Africa\u2019s first democratically elected female president. Her constitutionally allowed two-terms end by 16 January 2018.
\n–
\nBy: citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ghana\u2019s immediate past President John Dramani Mahama; Head of ECOWAS Election Observation Mission to Liberia, on Monday met with the two candidates for today\u2019s presidential run-off, George Weah and out-going Vice President, Joseph Boakai, and appealed for their maximum cooperation to ensure a peaceful and credible election. He reiterated at separate meetings with the presidential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":386327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107,10,11],"tags":[901,3,597,464,15673],"yoast_head":"\n