A consignment of ballot papers for Liberia’s presidential run-off election on Nov. 7 is expected to arrive in the country on Oct. 28, the National Elections Commission (NEC) disclosed on Wednesday.
NEC chairman Jerome Korkoya said the commission had ordered 3,053,435 ballots, the same quantity printed for the first round of the elections.
“The ballots are being printed in Slovenia,’’ the commissioner said.
NEC registered 2,183,629 voters, but 1,641,922 or 75 per cent turned out on Oct. 10 in the first round of the polls.
Because none of the 20 contesting political parties won over 50 per cent of the votes, NEC declared a run-off between the ruling Unity Party and Coalition for Democratic Change.
Korkoya, while addressing a news conference in Monrovia, also disclosed that the commission has received 56 election-related complaints, 33 of which have been concluded and forwarded to NEC Board of Commissioners.
He added that it all comprised seven members of the electoral body.
He revealed that NEC has begun hearing the complaint of All Liberian Party challenging the conduct of the Oct. 10 elections, while it just received another complaint from Liberty Party petitioning it for a re-run of the first round of the polls.
He, however, encouraged political parties to be represented at all polling places and to train their agents in their role at polling places.
The NEC chairman urged the media to be responsible in their reporting, adding that they should distinguish facts from opinions and put the national interests above personal ones.
On the issue of invalid votes, he explained that the huge number of invalid ballots was not just due to ignorance or lack of voter education, but also the large number of candidates on the ballots.
Korkoya stressed also that lack of discipline led many not to follow the instructions on how to mark the ballot.
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