By Monrovia Liberia- In a press conference held in monrovia to present the second Preliminary Statement of the European Union Observation Mission Deputy Chief Observer Jarek Domanski highlighted “Election Day was calm and we noticed organizational improvement of the process since the first round.”
Mr. Domanski underlined that 85 of their election observers covered 326 polling places both in rural and urban setting across the country including 63 out of 73 districts. The EU EOM noted that procedural irregularities were reduced in the runoff, thanking the refresher training program conducted for poll workers organized by the NEC.
According to the International the EU EOM, The 20-days runoff campaign was largely peaceful and quiet as both candidates focused mostly on announcing endorsement from first round unsuccessful presidential and legislative candidates. the body added that just as in the first round, the campaign was not issue driven instead it was a personality driven campaign, terming it as lack of issue based activities.
The finding further details that despite freedom of the press and of opinion continued to be respected during the Run-off campaign period, state-owned media continue to offer most of their news coverage to the incumbent. The EU EOM highlighted that nearer to run-off date, derogatory speech, inflammatory language and Misleading content on social media were largely on the increase, while political freedoms of both candidates and supporters remained respected.
EU Election Observation Mission findings from the 2023 Runoff re-echos the use of state resources by the Weah’s administration which continued to distort the level playing field.
By: Alphanso G. Kalama
