On October 10, more than 2.4 million Liberians will head to the polls to elect a president, vice president, and 88 members of their legislature -- 73 representatives and 15 senators.
These elections are historic, being the fourth in postwar Liberia but the second to be organized in the absence of the then UN Peacekeeping mission in Liberia, which played a key role in ensuring the security and credibility of the previous electoral process.
A total of over 5,000 polling stations will be set up across the fifteen political subdivisions of the country, with voting starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 6 p.m. These stations will be staffed by polling officials who are trained by the National Elections Commission (NEC) to manage the voting process. Each station caters to a specific number of registered voters, which should not exceed three thousand, as per the Liberian Elections Law. The location of polling stations is made public in advance.
Ballot Boxes and Papers
There are three types of ballot papers given to each voter at every polling place, denoting the presidential, senatorial, and House of Representative candidates. The ballot papers are color-coded -- red for presidential, blue for senatorial, and green for House of Representative candidates. A special ballot stamp with a unique and confidential NEC identification stamp will be used to mark the back of the ballot paper before giving it to voters.
Transparent boxes will be used, allowing election observers and political party agents to see the ballot paper being cast by the voter while maintaining the secrecy of the vote. This measure will assist in detecting tampered ballot boxes; all sealing and unsealing of ballot boxes take place in the presence of all observers, including political party agents.
Special number seals are used on the ballot boxes; these seal numbers are recorded upon opening and closing of polling and upon reopening when the count begins. Empty ballot boxes at polling places are sealed in the presence of political party agents before the commencement of the polls.
The secrecy of the vote is maintained by voting screens, behind which a voter marks their ballots. Ballots are provided in packs of 550 ballots (each pack contains 11 pads of 50 pieces) with unique serial numbers. All polling places must account for all ballots (ballots issued must equal ballots cast).
How do people vote?
Voting is restricted to Liberian citizens who have attained the age of 18 years or above and have not been judicially identified as incompetent or of unsound mind and must possess the National Elections Commission biometric voters card.
On arrival at their designated polling station, registered voters present their identification, and their names are checked against the Final Registration Roll (FRR), on which their names must appear in order to vote. An exception, however, is given to election security officers on duty at the center, polling staff, and others as defined in the polling procedures.
Voters whose information appears on the FRR are then given a ballot paper, which they mark in secret to indicate their preferred candidate. The ballot papers are then placed in a secure ballot box. After voting, a voter dips their finger in indelible ink.
The voter card, however, is not expected to be punctured as done during previous elections since it is machine-readable (scan QR code)--containing the voter's personal information, including individual voting precincts, polling places, and the page within the FRR where they can be found.
The idea of puncturing the voting card "has the propensity to destroy the card and make it unreadable," the National Elections Commission says.
How is the ballot counted?
At the close of voting, the votes cast at each polling place will be counted at the poll in the presence of agents of the parties and candidates, as well as independent observers. The vote(s) cast for each candidate will be recorded on a five-page carbon copy document known as the Record of the Count.
Parties' agents will be asked to sign each Record of the Count for the presidential, senatorial, and representative ballots cast. The information written on the carbon copy document--which is the original sheet of the count--will appear on the bottom of four sheets, with the original sheet then placed in a tamper-evident envelope in the presence of the parties/candidates' agents and observers.
The second sheet is then placed in the ballot box and sealed, with the serial numbers of the seals made known to the parties'/candidates' agents and independent observers. The third sheet is then posted on the wall of the polling place for public viewing, while the fourth sheet is given to the representative of the candidate who obtained the highest votes, and the fifth sheet is given to the representative of the candidate who obtained the second highest votes.
At the end of the day, the sealed ballot boxes and tamper-evident envelopes from the various polling places will be escorted by police to the various NEC magisterial offices for tally/tabulation, which is scheduled to commence on October 11. Parties'/candidates' agents and independent observers are present during the tally.
First, the original of the Record of the Count is taken from the tamper-evident envelope, and copies are made for everyone present. There is a projector in the tally room to show the result being typed from the Record of the Count for all to see. When the results for each polling place have been tallied, the information is printed, and parties'/candidates' agents are asked to sign the tallied results, and copies of the signed results are distributed.
The saved results, which cannot be altered, are then sent from the Magisterial Office to the Data Center at the NEC headquarters, where the results sent from each county, in the case of the presidential election, are collated (totaled) and submitted to the Board of Commissioners for announcement.
The results announced by the Board can be easily verified using the records of the count from the various polling places, along with the signed tally sheets that will be distributed to parties/candidates' agents and observers and posted for public viewing.
How does a presidential candidate win?
For a presidential candidate to be declared the winner, they must receive more than 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate receives that amount, a runoff election is held between the two candidates with the highest number of votes.
The National Elections Commission has 15 days after the day votes are cast to announce the election results. This means that by October 25, the final result of the election would be known, or sooner than that. But in the event, no candidate wins an absolute majority in the presidential election during the first ballot, the commission is mandated by the Constitution to hold a runoff election between the two candidates with the highest number of votes. The runoff is expected to be conducted no later than November 7.
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What happens if a candidate feels cheated?
If a presidential candidate feels cheated by an election outcome, they can seek legal recourse by appealing to the National Elections Commission -- with the hearing officer taking a first look at the case.
If the candidate is not satisfied with the ruling, they can file an appeal to the electoral body Board of Commissioners, whose ruling can also be challenged. According to the country's constitution, complaints of any election irregularities must be filed no later than seven days after the announcement of the official results.
The electoral body shall, within thirty days of receipt of the complaint, conduct an impartial investigation and render a decision, which may involve a dismissal of the complaint or a nullification of the election of a candidate.
Any political party or independent candidate affected by such a decision can approach the Supreme Court within seven days after the Board of Commissioners' ruling -- thus exhausting all available legal remedies to address the grievances at the NEC.
The court will then hear and determine the election dispute, within seven days and its decision will be final and binding. If the Supreme Court nullifies or sustains the nullification of the election of any candidate, for whatever reasons, the National Elections Commission within sixty days of the decision of the Court, is mandated to conduct new elections to fill the vacancy. If the court sustains the election of a candidate, the Commission shall act to effectuate the mandate of the Court.
