Leon press statement for immediate release

Liberia Elections Observation Network (LEON)

LEON PRESS STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 28, 2017 – Monrovia, Liberia

LEON commends Liberian Voters for a peaceful election and commends the National Election Commission for improvements in processing voters and applying polling and counting procedures on Election Day.

LEON commends the NEC for a process that was more organized than the first round, partly due to a lower turnout but also due to improved training of polling staff. The Final Registration Roll (FRR) was published at all precincts in accordance with the mandate of the Supreme Court and this helped voters to identify which polling place to go to. LEON observers have noted, both on election day and through a small survey of the FRR exhibited prior to the election, that a small percentage of people were still missing from the FRR. The Supreme Court’s order to restrict voting to only people found on the FRR apart from special categories was generally upheld but resulted in some people being turned away from voting.

Voting and counting were conducted under the watchful eyes of agents from both Unity Party and Coalition for Democratic Change who were present in almost all polling places observed and were afforded a clear view of every process along the way. However, a large number of complaints were filed and agents refused to sign results forms in 18% of polling places observed, despite LEON observers not seeing any major incidents of fraud or falsification of results.

Liberian voters must once again be commended for their calmness and maturity demonstrated on Election Day, and for coming out to vote this soon after Christmas. LEON is continuing to observe in all tally centers and will issue our final report after the official announcement of results which will include recommendations for future elections.

LEON calls for a more inclusive process for women, vulnerable people and persons with disabilities in future elections. We also call upon political parties not to issue premature statements on the results, to use the election dispute resolution mechanisms where they have proof of malfeasance, and to accept the final results after adjudication of complaints.
Methodology: LEON has deployed 1,040 observers throughout Liberia for Election Day who were stationed in approximately half of all polling precincts and 20% of polling places. 55% of observers were women and 12% were persons with disabilities. They observed voting and counting on the day of the run-off election and sent their checklist reports via text messages to a computer database. This statement is based on the findings of observers stationed in 663 polling places across all 73 electoral districts across the country. LEON Long Term Observers will continue to observe tallying of results and complaint processes. LEON will release a full report after the announcement of results which will include recommendations.

Main Findings:

97% of polling places observed opened within fifteen minutes of opening time with 3% opening around half an hour late mostly due to late arrival of polling materials. Materials were generally sufficient for the entirety of voting. Turnout was significantly lower for the second round, LEON observations indicate that it is little less than 50%, with women dropping from 52% of the total voters to 49%. However, in our pre- election survey of 300 voters across the country, all but 3 of them were able to correctly say on what date the run-off election was being held, so it would seem that lack of information was not necessarily a factor.

Voters were processed much faster than the first round, with the display of the FRR at the polling place having significant impact. Voters could find which page they were on to tell the voter identification officer. Procedures were generally followed; however, there was inconsistency in checking voters’ thumbs for ink, or in applying the ink in round 5% of polling places observed. LEON observers rated the performance of polling staff as either much better or better than in the first round in 98% of polling places observed. This was borne out by observers’ assessment of the NEC polling staff training prior to the run-off election.

The number of female polling staff dropped between the first and second rounds of the election to 2 out of 5. Moreover, only 16% of presiding officers were women. Party agents were also less likely to be female. Both CDC and Unity party had at least one party agent in almost all polling places observed by LEON and had unrestricted access to the process. Their understanding of voting and counting procedures was rated positively.

Quality of the FRR: LEON observers tallied the number of people added to the additional pages of the voter register and found that this was less than 1% of the number of people who voted overall. The majority voting in this way were from the special categories allowed. However, there was a small number who were missing from the FRR and who had voted this way in the first rounds who were allowed to vote again. A similar number of voters were turned away and not allowed to vote because they were not on the FRR even though they had valid voter registration cards. LEON checked a random selection of 300 voters’ details on the exhibited lists prior to the run-off election and found that some voters were still missing from the FRR although this was a significantly smaller percentage than during the June voter’s registration survey. It should be noted that adding missing voters was not part of the clean-up of the FRR ordered by the Supreme Court.

Few incidents or reports of electoral malfeasance were reported by LEON observers – two people trying to influence voters and two fights breaking out in the polling places. The police settled all incidents successfully and ensured calm. The vast majority of polling places observed experienced no problems. Security forces were observed at almost all polling stations with roughly three assigned to each precinct. Their performance was rated positively in most places.

Issues for persons with disabilities: 12% of polling places observed were assessed as not easily accessible to elderly or disabled voters, many of which were on the first floor of schools causing some voters to have to be carried to their polling places.

LEON noted that more than 10% of people that came to vote were blind or partially sighted. Although tactile ballot guides have been produced for every polling place, staffs are not always aware of them or know how to instruct voters. Only 44% of blind voters were given the tactile ballot guides to vote and the rest were assisted, thus affecting their right to a secret ballot. In a few polling places, blind voters were assisted by polling staff, rather than by a person of their choice, as specified in the NEC polling manual.

Counting: Observers and party agents were given a clear view of the counting processes in all places observed which is commendable. Counting procedures were generally adhered to and counting was conducted accurately. LEON observers generally agreed with the determination of invalid ballots which made up 3% of the total, a welcome decrease on the first round.

There was a small amount of interference in the counting process by party agents or traditional leaders with people other than the polling staff involved in the counting in 17 places. Party agents refused to sign the results sheets in 18% of counts observed and 52 complaints for either voting or counting were filed in the polling places observed. However, LEON witnessed there was no falsification of results.

Tallying – LEON has observers all 18 tally centers around the country.

There have been no incidents reported so far and both CDC and Unity party have party agents observers in all places.

Procedures are being followed correctly and tallying of results is happening quickly.

The process is very transparent as for the first round with results sheets being displayed and read out as the results are entered into the computer system.

There are fewer errors on the results sheets than for the first round reflecting the increased training and the simpler count.

LEON AS AN OBSERVATION NETWORK:

The Liberia Elections Observation Network (LEON) is a platform of four Liberian Civil Society Organizations: The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC), Liberia Crusaders for Peace (LCP), Federation of Liberia Youth (FLY) and National Union of Organizations for the Disabled (NUOD) with the goal to meaningfully contribute to the democratization process in Liberia by providing an avenue for civil society to participate in monitoring and observing the 2017 elections. LEON has a core team in Monrovia and 133 observers stationed around the country since June, observing all aspects of the electoral process. It has recruited and trained a further 1000 short term observers who have been stationed in polling places in all electoral, districts for both the October 10 elections and the run-off, reporting on the voting and counting processes. The 133 Long Term Observers will continue to monitor the post-election environment and to report on the tallying process and on complaints hearings.

Contact Information:

Mr. Amos Williams

Reporting Officer

LEON, National Secretariat

C/o Federation of Liberian Youth

([phone] / 776

E-mail: [e-mail]