ELECTORAL DEMOCRACY TRAINING CONFERENCE ENDS IN BUCHANAN
(May 21-23, 2008)
The third phase of the “Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections” (BRIDGE) training jointly held by IFES-Liberia and the National Elections Commission has ended in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County with the nearly 100 participants calling for a number of constitutional amendments and changes in the elections laws to provide financial autonomy to the NEC and state funding to political parties that meet certain threshold in the general elections.
The three-day training conference which was held under the theme: “Stakeholders in Partnership Towards Sustainable Electoral Democracy in Liberia” reviewed thecurrent capacity of electoral partners. Among those present at the conference were: Legislators specifically the House and Senate Committees on Elections and Internal Affairs; 12 political parties - including Unity Party, National Reformation Party, Liberia National Union, Liberia Action Party, Liberia Destiny Party, Free Democratic Party, National Vision Party, National Democratic Party of Liberia, Union of Liberian Democrats, Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia, National Patriotic Party and the Congress for Democratic Change.
Other institutions were the Liberia Council of Churches, Women in Peace Building Network, NAYMOTE, Federation of Liberian Youth and the Center for Democratic Empowerment and representatives of Media Institutions. Participants from the Government of Liberia came from the Ministries of Internal Affairs represented by Deputy Minster Walter Wisner, and Information, represented by Deputy Minister Cletus Sieh. Also in attendance at the Buchanan Electoral Democracy Training Conference was a delegation from the Electoral Commission of Guinea and the IFES Country Director of that country.
The stakeholders reviewed the current activities of the NEC and its readiness to hold local elections. In the wake of the cost prohibitive nature of Article 83(d) of the Liberian Constitution, which calls for an absolute majority for election for certain public offices, the conferees along with the Commission were unanimous on the need to embark on a reform agenda in collaboration with Governance Commission for a possible referendum to address these sticky constitutional issues to prepare the country for a smooth general and presidential elections in 2011. Also discussed exhaustively were the tenure of Commissioners and the financial autonomy of the National Elections Commission. Additionally, conferees after the exchange of views, embraced a proposal from political parties that parties that meet certain performance threshold in the general and presidential elections should be funded by the state.
Among topics presented during the conference were: Election Fundamentals; the various models of an Electoral Management Body; the Costs of Elections; Electoral Finance; and Electoral Law Reform.
The BRIDGE workshop was facilitated by Skye Christenssen of IFES Washington, Almami Cyllah of IFES- Liberia James Wallace of the NEC. Presentations were also made by Mr. James M. Fromayan, Chairman of the NEC, Commissioner Jonathan Weedor and the Junior Legal Counsel, Cllr. Augustine Fayah, also of NEC.
