MONROVIA, LIBERIA-The National Elections Commission (NEC) has expressed optimism that the pending 2020 Senatorial Mid-Term Election will be held.
NEC Acting Chairperson, Davidetta Brown-Lassana, told Senators on Capitol Hill Thursday, May 21, 2020, that holding of the election also depends on projections from the Ministry of Health as was done in 2014 during the Ebola Crisis.
Madam Brown-Lassana said:” NEC is working along with Health Authorities and the Central Government to inform any decision on the 2020 election, also based on the State of Emergency and lockdown.”
The Elections Commission Acting Chairperson told Senators that the Commission has received three-hundred-thousand United States Dollars out of seventeen-point-six-million needed to conduct both the election and referendum in 2020.
She disclosed that the preparatory process is ongoing for the conduct of the 2020 election, but called on the Liberian Senate to extend the election time from October 13 to December 15, 2020, as requested by President George Weah recently.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Cllr. Varney Sherman, is urging NEC to request a credit facility from its vendors to ensure the conduct of the 2020 Mid-Term-Election.
Cllr. Sherman said:” Giving the negative effects of COVID-19 on the global economy, it is only befitting that NEC ask for credit from its vendors in the name of the Government.”
The Grand Cape Mount County Senator said Government will welcome such negotiation if NEC initiates it in the general interest of the Country and people.
He maintained that currently Government does not have money needed for the electoral process in full as it is struggling from the loss of COVID-19.
