According to unconfirmed report from the United States, some Board of Commissioners of the country’s electoral body, the National Elections Commission (NEC) may likely be listed to be designated by the United States Department of Treasury Department via the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act if they continue to interact with those already sanctions designated.
Already some Liberians who were sanctioned designated by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) are gearing up to contest for the upcoming 2023 general and presidential elections, a situation when happened with the support of the NEC, our sources said may seriously lead the commission to be grabbed by the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
According to multiple sources in the U.S., who confided in the GNN, noted that the reported pending imposition sanctions on some NEC Commissioners is due to what our sources described as some ongoing irregularities at the commission including the awarding of contracts to some Chinese companies without the impot he Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC).
Early last month, October 2022, authorities of the National Elections Commission (NEC) appear to be entrenched in their defiance of the Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC), which has warned the electoral body against awarding a contract for the procurement of election materials to a little-known Chinese company that lacks the track record for elections procurement.
The NEC decision, which has allegedly already been communicated to partners including the UNDP, comes at a time when the electoral body has yet to satisfy the PPCC’s requirements for an approved vendor to procure materials for the pending midterm Senatorial and Representative by-elections, as well as the National Referendum.
The National Elections Commission had earlier sought from the Public Procurement Concession Commission (PPCC) a ‘no objection’ for Ekemp International, a Chinese company partnering with a Nigerian firm, to provide all biometric materials and conduct the biometric registration for the 2023 biometric voter roll.
This situation drew the attention of the donor community including the European Union, ECOWAS and the United States who also query NEC as to what gave the right to hire a Chinese Company for such.
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