-Over slow voting process
By: Leila Gbati
Early Tuesday, October 10, 2023, several Liberians were seen rushing at various polling centers to exercise their franchise for a new leadership that will lead the affairs of the country for the next six to nine years.
It was a scene in District #2, Montserrado County,precisely Old Field Community when several registered voters at Paynesville Central Academy Annex (PCA) with precinct code 30231- violently stormed the precinct and destroyed the entrance as a means of navigating their ways to cast their votes.
It was alleged by voters that the National Election Commission (NEC) workers were not focusing on their work to complete in time with the 6:00pm closure of all precincts across the country.
In an interview with few registered voters at the precinct, Joel Richards said the cause of the violence was because the process was slow so the crowd got angry and people got tired standing under the sun. Out of patient, they stormed the gate and entered the fence.
According to Joel, through the help of the additional police force that came on ground, they were able to calmed the situation and ensure that people stood in the queue. Bendu Anderson also revealed that voting process was a major challenge, due to the huge number of registered voters.
She explained that District #2 Old Field community, Montserrado County where the PCA school is located has been the only precinct every election. According to her, violence always occurred on the grounds of PCA something NEC needs to take into serious consideration by increasing the number of precinct instead of PCA being the only precinct.
“Because of the huge numbers and other people being impatient to stand in the cue for long hours becomes a problem and you will find people complaining and stare violence this is what led to the incident here” she narrated.
For his part, the Precinct Presiding Officer (PPO) at PCA, Ishmael AV Sirleaf said the process was going on smoothly contrary to the voters claims and out of a sudden they experienced the break-in.
He explained that what must have appeared slow to the voters that caused impatience is the process to cast the votes because they needed to put the right measure in place to avoid criticism and negative comments as been observed during the past elections.
At the same time he furthered that most voters think they are the only ones busy and want to come at the precinct in a hurry and cast vote without experiencing a huge turnout.
Meanwhile, Ishmael believes that the precinct was crowded because there are six polling centers in the precinct and it includes, polling places one, two, three four and five and each polling place contained five hundred and ten registered voters while polling place five and six have four hundred and nineteen voters.
He added that at every polling place they anticipate having not more than five hundred, fifty registered voters.
