MONROVIA: The National Elections Commission (NEC) has strongly refuted a Facebook post which linked the commission to alleged undemocratic conduct that has the proclivity to question the credibility of the October 10, 2023 Presidential and Legislative elections results.
The Commission, in a press release issued over the weekend made known its concern regarding a post circulating on Facebook under the caption: “Breaking News” which was published on August 25, 2023.
According to NEC, the poster who was not mentioned in the press release alleges, that “NEC Board of Commissioners has ignored the recruitment procedures which called for the online application of Liberians and subsequent vetting/selection by a team but has dispatched special recruitment teams to Lofa, rural Montserrado and Nimba counties to do a new recruitment and select their own workers who are believed to be Cdcians”.
The post further alleges that, “This scheme is intended to recruit Cdcians to occupy key positions as presiding officers, identification officers, ballot paper issuers, and queue controllers”.
The Commission has in no uncertain terms, categorically denied these allegations. NEC said the narration on Facebook has no basis in fact; it is false and a dangerous attempt to undermine the electoral process and expose the Commission to public disrepute and endangers members of its Board of Commissioners and staff.
NEC has however assured the Liberian people and the general public that applications for all categories of temporary staffs were done online via the NEC Temporary Staff Application Portal.
The press release clarified that the application process for temporary staffs for the elections commenced on July 31, 2023 and climaxed on August 7, 2023, with a total of 60,365 applicants in all categories to fill the 39,000 required posts.
NEC’s statement of clarification states further that the online recruitment platform was introduced to ensure the integrity of the recruitment process of temporary electoral workers and to attract highly qualified applicants, as was manifested during Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) which was a resounding success.
NEC furthers that the application process is such that everyone who successfully submitted an application received a unique Temporary Staff Application (TSA) number, which will be used as an ID for each applicant through the process of short-listing, testing, training, contract and the processing of payment.
“Absolutely, no one will be hired who did not apply via the NEC’s Temporary Staff Application Portal from July 31 to August 7, 2023,” the statement said.
“For checks and balances and the application of utmost due diligence, the recruitment team, headed by NEC Human Resource Section, has identified and trained 38 headquarter staffs (two per magisterial area) to work with the Election Magistrates to do the vetting of the applicants,” NEC noted.
According to NEC, members of the Board of Commission, who are policy makers of the Commission, do not interfere with the recruitment of staffs, which is a responsibility of the Secretariat.
NEC: “This is a malicious attempt on the part of the poster to undermine the credibility of the Commission during these critical times”.
The Commission has at the same time cautioned political leaders to feel free and contact NEC for the purpose of seeking clarification on matter bordering on the conduct of the October polls.
NEC: “Finally, we call on all political actors and stakeholders to always contact the NEC, with whatever evidence they may have, before publishing these kinds of misinformation that have the propensity to not only undermine the credibility of the electoral process but that could also put personnel of the NEC in harm ways and even threaten the peace”.
