Liberia: Man, 31, Arrested for ‘Multiple Voter Registrations’ in Maryland

The Liberia National Police Maryland County Detachment has arrested a 31-year-old man, for alleged multiple voter registrations, which is a breach of the electoral law of Liberia.  

The accused, Michael Nah, was caught while attempting to register for the second time after obtaining his first biometric voter registration in the county.

Nah’s act is a crime under the Liberian election law, which makes registering more than once for the same election voter fraud. 

It comes a few weeks after Monrovia City Court Stipendiary Magistrate Ben Barco sent six men to prison for alleged crimes of fraudulent voter card registration.

The men were accused of attempting to deceive the electoral process by falsifying voter identification cards, a serious offense that could have far-reaching consequences for the democratic process.

Suspect Nah, according to the police, has however admitted to the crime during the police investigation  and has pleaded for forgiveness and mercy, saying “it was not his intention to do so.”

Nah initially registered at the Cavalla Rubber Corporation (CRC) camp registration center before heading to the Central High School registration center.

“It was not my intention to register twice. But I registered at a center where my ID card photo was not satisfactory, so I immediately destroyed it,” Nah said.

“I told them to destroy it and do another one for me. But they refused and that's how I broke it into pieces and threw it away. I went to the second center, but they denied me. I was appealing to them to register me, unfortunately, I saw police entering."

“I'm appealing to the police to forgive me because it was not my intention, I am calling on all my friends who have the mind of registering twice to desist from it," he noted.

However, Martha Garter, a registrar of the National Elections Commission (NEC) disagreed.

According to Garter, Nah was caught when his fingerprint was being taken, saying claimed that the system promptly displayed that he had already registered at a different center.

“That is how w𝒆 started asking him questions but he put on violence. He denied the fact that he had registered elsewhere,” she said.  “So, to avoid any act of violence, we decided to have the police contacted to intervene. “That is how he was caught and handed to the LNP,” she said.

“W𝒉𝒆𝒏 the police came, that was when he admitted that he earlier registered somewhere else,” Garter explained.

Meanwhile, police preliminary investigation has termed the act of Nah as "voter's registration fraud."

Nah is currently in Police custody undergoing investigation. He could not be released despite his plea for mercy.