HARBEL, Margibi – The Office of the Election Magistrate in Margibi has confirmed that about 154,000 residents of the county have registered to vote in the upcoming representative and presidential elections in October.

Speaking on Peace FM, one of the community radios in the county, Margibi election magistrate Fombah Swaray said though the process had some challenges during its inception, the National Elections Commission was able to quickly respond to the demands of the electorates in the county.

Margibi, with five electoral districts, had 148 registration centers. Each center had four staff members and a number of centers were monitored and supervised by an election supervisor.

Swaray said the 154,000 registered voters announced is tentative, as the final figure will be published after an exhibition period across the county.

“Some might be taken out of the process or denied from voting due to lack of qualification, or perhaps they might not have met some of the criteria,” Swary added.

He said during the exhibition process, those who would be disqualified include non-citizens and registrants under the age of 18.

Swaray said based on the challenges that might arise during the exercise, NEC would again scrutinize the list and record the number of registrants in Margibi.

The recent figure of registered voters in the county surpassed the last registration in 2014 during the special senatorial election, when about 132,000 Margibians participated in the voter’s registration process.

With this, it is now established that there is an increment of 22,000 registered voters in the just ended process in Margibi.

Of the total number of 154,000 registered voters, Margibi’s first district produced the highest number in the county. About 39,000 Margibians registered in the biggest district in the county.

The district begins from the R2 Community near Paynesville, Monrovia. It covers a great portion of Robertsfield Highway and stretches to Marshall. Firestone’s divisions one, two, five, six, seven, nine, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 and 16 also form part of Margibi’s first electoral district.

Margibi Second District recorded 32,000 voters, while districts three, four, and five produced 27,000, 29,000 and 25,000, respectively.

Duazon Public School on the Robertsfield Highway recorded the highest number of registered voters, with over 3,700 people registering at the center. The center with the second highest number of voters registered was at the John P. Mitchell High School, again in district one.

“We are not surprised by those communities in Margibi’s first district that have recorded the highest number of registration; it was the same in 2011 and 2014,” Swaray added.

Not surprisingly, The Bush Chicken has confirmed that the first district of Margibi has the highest number of representative aspirants than any other district in the county. More than 15 people have expressed their desire to contest the seat currently occupied by Representative Roland Opee Cooper.

Margibi, one of the vote-rich counties in Liberia, is closer to Monrovia and is referred to many as the gateway to the country due to the location of the nation’s only international airport.

For the first time in the history of the country, it produced its first speaker, Emmanuel Nuquay, who is poised to contest to be reelected to represent the county’s fifth district.

Margibi’s Senator Oscar Cooper has also expressed his desire to contest as a presidential candidate in the October election.

Featured photo by Zeze Ballah