Source: allAfrica.com
All is set and at about noon time, Liberians and the political leaders, some of whom are desirous of contesting various positions next year, will know how the process will proceed and what they need to be doing.
The essence of this is that the National Elections Commission (NEC), the body in charge of electoral activities in Liberia, has announced that it would today Friday, August 20, 2010, make public the electoral calendar for the conduct of the 2011 presidential and legislative elections.
By this, the commission will be saying when registration of political parties will begin, when registration of interested candidates will begin, when campaign will get under way and the rest of the activities that certify the process.
Before reaching to this important bridge, the NEC has been involved with pre-electoral activities such as voter registration education, consultations with major stakeholders such women groups, political parties leaders, the media, in an attempt to discuss how the process could be handled to avoid confusion and other disingenuous activities.
More besides, the Commission has, in its own weak way, succeeded in carrying on boundary harmonization and that it was only waiting for the threshold to proceed with the aspect of constituency demarcation.
As it was holding these consultations across the country, the commission was also sounding warnings to all and sunders that the delay by the Legislature was not in the interest of holding a free and fair elections as so many things pertaining to holding the elections were tied to threshold bill.
The release which did not provide much details on other activities that will precede the announcement of the electoral calendar, also quoted the Commission as saying that it will use the time to announce its official position on the Joint Resolution passed by the National Legislature for the apportioning of representative seats in the House of Representatives.
What that position will be is a mere conjecture, but it is clear that this is the area of interest to most Liberians, even members of the national legislature and president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who wasted no time in signing the document.
More besides, it is likely to be a mere professionally critical analysis of the pros and cons of the Resolution, as the commission itself does not have the teeth to bite, in terms of rejecting it. Whatever the case may be, all eyes are now set to the NEC and whatever it will say could be judged for or against it.
