The Election Coordinating Committee (ECC), the Liberia Election Observation Network (LEON) and the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, issued a joint statement commending the government, the citizens of Nimba and the country at large for the peaceful just ended Senatorial by-election but noted the slow pace at which voters turned out to vote.
The election observatory groups also urged the citizens to remain calm and await the official announcement of the results by the National Elections Commission.
“We also commend the NEC for the timely distribution of election materials and the adequate deployment of polling staff, and we also noted the slow pace at which voters turned out to vote despite the anticipation of an enthusiastic election,” the groups said.
The groups praised the entire election process — the opening of polls, the voting process, as well as the closing — and the tally process in the polling places were smooth.
They explained how the NEC was in charge of the campaign schedules of political parties and candidates in efforts to avoid violent clashes between supporters.
“We have the privilege of observing the signing of the Farmington Declaration on April 15, 2025, by the candidates,” they group said.
“The declaration provided a framework to hold all political parties and independent candidates accountable for maintaining the peace,” they added.
The groups also outlined some instances or incidents that they observed during the election process that delayed voting for an hour in one of the precincts, code 33111 in District 8, where the citizens stopped NEC from the using the public school, because the government had neglected the renovation of the school.
According to the groups, the situation resulted in the late opening of polls after the intervention of local authorities and NEC and at last a church was used for the polling process.
They also reported another incident at Jesus Love Academy on Guinea Road in Ganta, where one of the candidates, Torbor T. W. Farngalo and some NEC polling staff, as well as security, went into argument over an allegation that his poll watchers were thrown out from monitoring the counting.
“However,”, they said, “the overall polling process was peaceful despite the two incidents. All voting materials were available and there was adequate deployment of security officers throughout all electoral districts of Nimba in addition to party agents and other observers deployed to observe the process.”
