By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Supreme Court of Liberia on Wednesday turned down the opposition request to stop the ongoing nationwide voter registration ahead of October’s presidential and legislative polls.
The Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) claimed listing voters without first demarcating constituencies according to the recent national census was unconstitutional, a BBC report says.
The court in a unanimous decision said there is no basis “disturbing” the voters’ registration exercise, adding that the electoral umpire, the National Elections Commission’s (NEC) had not violated any part of the constitutional provision as alleged by the opposition.
The apex court affirms that the case did not constitute an election matter.
The electoral management body, following this rule is expected to move ahead with phase two of the voter registration exercise.
The body had already conducted phase one last month, which which recorded series of technical glitches.
The country’s population has grown by 50.4% to 5.2 million people, according to 2022 provisional results released in February.
Opposition has expressed concern that the new numbers might be manipulated to favour President George Weah who is facing challenges in his re-election bid following corruption allegation.
