The chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, is to lead a 150-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Election Observer Mission to monitor Liberia’s presidential polls scheduled for October 11.
Liberia’s last presidential elections held in November 2005 following the country’s protracted civil war saw Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf emerge as Africa’s first elected female President. Sirleaf is also running for a second term.
The forthcoming polls are critical for consolidating the gains made in Liberia and other ECOWAS member states over the last decade in the entrenchment of peace, stability and good governance. The success of the elections will also testify to the country’s maturity in democratic principles and progress in national reconciliation.
In recent past, ECOWAS has observed elections in Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Togo.
The observers will be deployed to different counties of the country for the poll monitoring.?
ECOWAS had earlier sent a fact-finding mission to Liberia from September 19 to 24, 2011, which met with political parties and some of their candidates.
Under its Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, ECOWAS is required to dispatch fact-finding and observer missions to member states conducting presidential elections as part of its determination to ensure democratic convergence across the region.??
These missions also enable the regional organization to determine appropriate assistance to be rendered to Member States toward ensuring the conduct of free, transparent and credible elections in the region.