Board members meet with NEC – Liberia Representative and NCSCL – National Chairperson.
by AMD Secretariat | Oct 16, 2017 | Amd news | 0 comments
The AMD team had the opportunity to have a discussion with the Director of Civic/Voter Education at the National Elections Commission (NEC), Mr Senesee G. Freeman, who took time off his busy schedule on the eve of the election to exchange with us. In attendance of this discussion was Christopher O'Connor from the Africa Program at the National Endowment for Democracy who also observed the Elections with the AMD. During the discussion which was centered on the degree of readiness of NEC for the General elections, Mr Senesee was convicted that within his capacity as Director of Civic/Voter education at NEC, they have done much to educate the population, having collaborated on several platforms with AMD member organization, NAYMOTE. As per questions asked by AMD Board members, the director stressed on their role, in educating citizens, which involved liaising with local and traditional leaders, Paramount Chiefs, District Commissioners, via regional consultations. The activity being a challenging one due to the fact that there was an apparent adoption of a partisan posture by these individuals. To aid sensitization, NEC produce Civic Voter Education Manuals and distributed all across the country which were being used by trainers. They also printed a lot of material, posters, flyers which were spread across the country to create awareness.
Also, the AMD through the Liberia mission had as one of its objectives to further nurture the culture of dialogue between emerging and established political and civil society leaders and identify new entry points and niches for collaboration between civil and political societies for positioning youths as partners in governance, peace and stability. To this effect, the AMD team met with the Chairperson of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia (NCSCL), Madam Frances R. Deigh Greaves. The Chairperson enlightened AMD members of the role the NCSCL is playing to strengthen the activities of Civil Societies in Liberia. The NCSCL has a mission to harness the potential of civil society organizations for self-regulation, coordination, capacity building and policy advocacy and fostering partnership. The Meeting which lasted over 40 minutes, served as a starter for further collaboration between the AMD and the Civil Societies in Liberia.