Liberia: Lower Nimba Citizens Raise Concern over Late BVR Phase-II Awareness

The citizens of the Lower Nimba County, especially in the Yarwin Mehnsonnoh and Tappita Districts, are concerned over the delay in the awareness of the newly introduced biometric voter registration process, which kicked off on April 21, 2023.

Some of the citizens, many of whom are first time voters and the elderly, said with about a week into the BVR Phase-II in Nimba, there is still not enough awareness about the BVR process.

“The coming election will be my first election to participate in and up to now we are not seeing any organization to do awareness on what we will be doing and how the BVR process is going to be,” said one Josephus in Zekepa.

“We hardly see posters or flyers from the National Elections Commission about the BVR process, but all we have been hearing are the voices of aspirants on the local radio, calling on the citizens to register so as to be qualified to vote,” a young lady, who did not want to be named, said at the Zekeh Memorial High Campus in Zekepa, where BVR process is taking place.

“Even though we are hearing about the voter registration on the local radio station, but we are not seeing the action on the ground, no flyers or stickers from NEC and, in fact, we are not seeing any local groups to do the awareness,” said another first time voter, who identified herself as Labehyee.

Zekepa is one of the remotest parts of Nimba, located in the southern part of the county, bordering Bong County. It is about 80km from either Tappita or Saclepea.

Besides aspirants posting their banners bearing their photos with the inscription, ‘register to vote, there is no sign of BVR awareness, in the form of posters of flyers from NEC to be seen in any of the towns or villages in the region prior to the launch of the BVR awareness, something that really raises concern among the citizens, wondering why the Civil Education Process is so slow.

“Are they waiting until BVR exercise is over?” an elderly man identified as Gonkartee Joe asked. 

“There is no BVR awareness yet in our district,” Mr.  David Jacobs, a Statutory Superintendent of Yarwin Messonnoh stated on April 11, 2023 in Zekepa, via mobile phone.

In the Saclepea, banners bearing aspirants’ photos are seen along the road in towns and villages conveying the same message; for example, “Nyan Tuayen, Jr. for Senate 2023, Register to Vote.” 

Mr. Sam Narpeh Wehyee, a former District Commissioner of Doe Administrative District in Tappita Statutory District said, “We have not seen anything yet when it comes to civic education on voter registration, since we got in this electoral year.”

But, he said what has been going on is what he terms as ‘pre-campaigning’ done by supporters of various aspirants and political parties, going around under the pretext of doing awareness, targeting the youth, mainly the first time voters, encouraging them to register to vote.

Contrary to Mr. Wehyee’s statement, the Administrative Assistant to the City Mayor of Tappita, Sam Kpan argued that NEC Chairperson Davidetta Brown Lansanah, a month ago visited Tappita and held a town hall meeting with state-holders, including chiefs, elders, women representatives as well as youth representatives from the across the district, explaining the entire BVR process.

“I think the town hall meeting was held to inform the local leaders about the BVR and the reason for bringing the stakeholders is for them to disseminate the information upon their return to their various localities,” he said.

However, Mr. Asanto Lekpor, NEC Lower Nimba Magistrate said the BVR process was launched on Friday, April 15, 2023 across the district, where flyers and posters were posted in every town and village. 

He said four CBOs were hired to carry on BVR awareness across the lower part of Nimba, beginning from Saclepea, Yarwin Mehnsonnoh and to Gbi-Dorlu, respectively.

Mr. Lekpor explained that the BVR awareness was carried on weeks ahead of the biometric voter registration second phase to keep the voters informed, as early awareness would have made the voters forget about the process.

“If you do the awareness too early the voters might forget some of their roles, but when it is done a week to the period it will still be fresh in their mind,” she said.

According to NEC 2017 election data shows about 279,572 were qualified to vote in Nimba, with over 21% between the ages of 18 – 22, which could be considered as first time voters in the 2017 general election.

The data also showed that in Lower Nimba, which contains about four electoral districts, including district 6, 7, 8 and 9, over 117,000 registered to vote in the 2017 general election. 

About 75% of Lower Nimba districts, including Kparblee, Yarwin Mehnsonnoh, Gbi and Dorlu are inaccessible to good roads and also faced challenges over better communication systems or no radio service.

In this pending election, the percentage of the first-time voters is likely to rise, with nearly all of them still illiterate to the voting process, putting them under the spotlight of political actors in order to win their minds.

However, in Upper Nimba all were set for the launch of the BVR Awareness across in the six electoral districts under its supervision, said NEC Upper Nimba Magistrate Milton Paye.

He said there was no delay in the BVR awareness as perceived by the citizens, adding, “everything was done as scheduled in line with the election calendar drawn by NEC.”

Mr. Paye explained that this year election’s registration is done in two phases and as they move to the other phase, the BVR awareness will be carried on by the contracted institutions.

The first phase of the BVR process ended in six counties and the concentration is now focused on the remaining nine counties, including Nimba, Bong, Lofa, Grand Gedeh, River Gee, Maryland, Grand Kru, Rivercess and Sinoe respectively.