By Chimezie Godfrey
Prof. Attahiru Jega, former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC) from 2010 to 2015, will lead the short-term ECOWAS Election Observation Mission (EOM) for the Liberian presidential, senatorial and parliamentary elections scheduled to be held on Tuesday 10 October 2023.
Prof. Attahiru Jega arrived in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, on Monday 2 October 2023, and was welcomed by Ambassador Josephine Nkrumah, ECOWAS Resident Representative to Liberia.
During his stay, the Head of the ECOWAS EOM and his team will hold working sessions with different stakeholders, including the National Elections Commission (NEC), government, civil society organisations, the media, security agencies, as well as political parties and candidates, in order to ensure the smooth conduct of the electoral process.
An estimated 2,471,617 voters out of Liberia’s population of 5.4 million are expected to elect the new President of Liberia, fifteen (15) Senators and seventy-three (73) members of the House of Representatives.
In accordance with the provisions of the Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance relating to the observation of elections and ECOWAS assistance, the West African Organisation has deployed a 95-member election observation mission, comprising 80 short-term observers and 17 long-term observers.
The ECOWAS short-term observers are drawn from the ECOWAS Council of the Wise, the ECOWAS Parliament and the Community Court of Justice, Member States’ Ministries of Foreign Affairs, electoral management bodies and civil society organisations.
The role of the West African election observation mission deployed to Liberia is to monitor all pre-electoral, electoral and post-electoral phases of the election, to ensure that the electoral process complies with international best practice.
