GOMPA, Nimba – Sen. Thomas Grupee of Nimba has discussed “alarming” complaints coming from citizens in the county about the incompetency of staffers from the National Election Commission conducting the ongoing voter registration exercise.

“Having arrived in Ganta today, the news and complaints coming out from our citizens in Ganta were very alarming,” he said. “It is disturbing for us to know that NEC employees that were sent here to carry on the registration are too incompetent to perform their job – some who even could not spell Nimba. This is very shameful and disgraceful.”

One voter registration staff spelled “Nimba” as “NIBA” on a voter card, while another employee at the voting center no. 33227 wrote “Uniba” on the card of Enoch P. Dolo, a 29-year-old resident of the county.

Another instance highlighting the shoddy work done by voter registration staff happened at center no. 33076, where Leo Duo, 21, received his voter card only to find that the picture was printed upside down.

Voter Card with Nimba being misspelled and another with photo outside down. Photo: S. Kanny Ziamo/LINA

Grupee said he contacted the NEC’s Executive Director C. Larmin Lighe via a phone call to enumerate the series of complaints that he encountered upon his arrival in Nimba.

“He confirmed to me that this issue was not only in Nimba County, but is also taking place in other counties such as Montserrado County,” Grupee said.

Grupee noted that to protect the integrity of the NEC – and the nation’s electoral process – the commission must consider a revision to the recruitment process of the voter registration staff.

The Nimba lawmaker also said he would consider discussing with his colleagues at the Capitol Building his grievance about voters crossing from Guinea to Liberia to register to vote. He said counties bordering other counties must take this very seriously.

“Coming to Ganta and getting to know that there has been Guineans who registered in our election ­– and later on being booked by citizens – I think that is very much alarming,” Grupee said. “If this happens to be the issue, then some of us have to take our grievance back to the Legislature – and then, we will call on NEC to make sure that our electoral process is not compromised in any way.”

In a related development, Grupee told the press that he was informed by the commissioner of Gbi and Doru, David Tweh Krua, that the citizens in that locality were crossing over to River Cess to get registered.

“Hon. David Tweh called me two days ago to tell me that the Gbi and Doru citizens living in the United States had [aired] a radio announcement on Radio Tappita, urging the citizens of Gbi and Doru not to register in Nimba, but to go to River Cess to register there,” Grupee said. “This is very much disturbing.”

Grupee called on the citizens to avoid registering in River Cess, as the Legislature may declare the district an electoral district and that would depend on the number of registered voters in the district.

“I want to send this out as a caveat – as a very strong warning,” he added. “Whosoever that is in the habit of leaving Nimba County to go to River Cess [from] the Gbi and Doru belt to go and register there… you are violating a law and the penalty for that law is imprisonment and fine.”

Featured photo by Arrington Ballah