The National Elections Commission (NEC) is required by law to mobilize and register eligible Liberian citizens throughout the country to vote in all called public elections. On March 20, 2023, NEC began registering citizens for participation in legislative and presidential elections scheduled for October 10, 2023. The exercise consists of capturing facial features and fingerprints from eligible persons. Last week, the Liberia Elections Observation Network (LEON) released the first of eight weekly reports on its observation of the biometric voter registration (BVR) process. This week’s report is a sequel to the first report and contains key observations as collected from BVR centers with additional recommendations to the NEC, civil society organizations, and political parties to support the process’ success.

The findings in this report are from LEON’s initial observation of the BVR phase one (1) currently ongoing in six (6) counties, namely: Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Grand Bassa, Margibi, and Montserrado Counties. In addition to our weekly reports, LEON will issue one full and comprehensive report covering all the phases of BVR at the end of May 2023, when the nationwide
BVR exercises conclude.