Liberian journalists attend workshop on use of ICT for elections

Accra, Aug. 16, GNA - Staff of African Elections Project (AEP) would participate in the coverage of the Liberian Referendum scheduled for August 23.

This would be under its Liberia Elections Incidents Monitoring system project in strategic partnership with Humanity United.

This was contained in a statement issued in Monrovia on Tuesday by Mr Jeremiah Sam of Penplusbytes and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

AEP was established in 2008 to enhance the ability of journalists and the mass media to provide more timely and relevant election information and knowledge while undertaking the monitoring of specific and important aspects of governance.

“Liberia’s referendum has largely been viewed as a giant stride in the country’s democracy since the end of the civil war in 2003. It entails a “yes” or “no”, to the four proposed constitutional amendments, including whether the country should hold its general elections in October or November during its elections year,” the statement added.

The statement said AEP was working with the Liberia Media Centre, Ushahidi Liberia and other partners to provide comprehensive report from all the 4,457 polling stations across the 1,780 voting centres via an SMS system, a call centre and the use of social media tools such as Twitter, Face Book and You Tube.

It pointed out that in a related pre-referendum activity, AEP had organised a workshop for Liberian journalists, call centre agents and field officers on how to access the use of ICT and the social media in covering elections and ensuring transparency in the whole process.

“We are pleased and proud to be part of such a broad-based effort aimed at entrenching democracy in Liberia. AEP will cover this referendum until the final result are declared and provide a non-partisan coverage while chronicling any referendum-related violence incidence or irregularities”, said Mr Kwami Ahiabenu II, African Elections Project Team Leader, when addressing the opening session of the workshop.

“After covering elections in 10 countries, AEP is no doubt a ground breaking project providing an important contributory role in deepening democracy and supporting the creation of open societies through capacity building for the media and other key stakeholders.

“At the same time, it provides a unique online elections information and knowledge platform that will eventually provide transparent access to the electoral processes across the continent,” Mr Ahiabenu added.