The National Elections Commission (NEC) says 2,471,617 Liberians will participate in the 10 October 2023 presidential and legislative elections.
NEC chairperson Madam Davidetta Browne-Lansanah announced the final figure Monday, 17 July 2023 after concluding the exhibition, deduplication, and adjudication processes of the 2023 Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) provisional registration roll.
"This number represents One Million Two Hundred Thirty-seven Thousand Two Hundred Fifty-seven (1,237,257) Females and One Million Two Hundred Thirty-four Thousand Three Hundred Sixty (1,234,360) Males," she said.
She explained at the NEC headquarters that from 12 to 17 June 2023, the Commission conducted the exhibition of the provisional registration roll from the 20 March to 11 May 2023 voter registration exercise.
Before the exhibition, she said the NEC announced a preliminary figure of 2,498,904, of which 27,192 duplicate records were identified while 529 suspected underage registrants were flagged, and a total active registrant was 2,471, 183.
She explained that both active registrants and suspected underage registrants were exhibited during the period.
Following the conclusion of the exhibition exercise, she said in preparation for the announcement of the final figure, the Commission on 13 July 2023 demonstrated to the National Steering Committee on Elections (NSCE) the results of the exhibition exercise.
She said the NEC provided information to that committee on how the deduplication and adjudication processes were conducted.
According to Madam Browne-Lansanah, the NSCE is chaired by the Minister of Justice and Co-chaired by the ECOWAS Commission Resident Representative in Liberia and the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Liberia.
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She said a similar exercise for political parties was held under the Inter-Party Consultative Committee (IPCC) on 14 July 2023.
During the exercise for the political parties, she said the Commission demonstrated the outcome of the Exhibition concerning the deduplication and adjudication of the provisional registration roll.
She further said the Commission, having concluded the exhibition, deduplication, and adjudication process of the 2023 BVR provisional registration roll, was pleased to announce the final figures that will participate in the 10 October 2023 elections.
In a related development, Madam Browne-Lansanah said as per the electoral timeline, a provisional list of candidates will be published on 18 July 2023 and the final list will be published on 5 August 2023.
She recalled that the nomination of candidates for the 10 October 2023 elections commenced on 14 June 2023 and concluded on 14 July 2023 as planned.
"The NEC is pleased to report that a total of One Thousand Thirty (1,030) aspirants submitted nomination documents to the Commission during the process," she said.
Of this number, Chairperson Browne-Lansanah detailed that 159 constituting 15 percent are females while 871, or 85 percent are males.
She said independent aspirants account for 199, constituting 19 percent while aspirants for political parties/coalitions/alliances are 831 or 8l percent.
She thanked and assured all Liberians, all stakeholders, and electoral actors that the NEC will continue to work with them to the successful conclusion of the 2023 electoral process.
