Monrovia-One other state of affairs has erupted on the Nationwide Elections Commissions headquarters because the Fee’s web site has been shut down after the electoral physique allegedly did not pay its vendor, elevating recent issues in regards to the Fee’s credibility with native service suppliers.
A verify of the positioning on Thursday, Sept. 18, confirmed the Fee’s fundamental data portal and associated information had been offline. The positioning is managed by Hak Know-how, a Liberian-owned firm contracted for 2 years to offer net companies. Sources say NEC has not paid the agency for almost a yr.
Hak Know-how’s chief govt officer, Edmund Kloh, declined to remark when contacted. Nonetheless, sources near the Fee confirmed the shutdown was linked to nonpayment. The quantity owed stays unclear. NEC didn’t reply to requests for remark.
This isn’t the primary time NEC has confronted backlash over unpaid money owed. In 2019, M-Tosh Prints Media took the Fee to the Business Courtroom for failing to pay greater than $171,000 for pre-packed election supplies delivered six years earlier.
The courtroom dominated in favor of M-Tosh and ordered NEC to pay, however Chairperson Davidetta Browne Lansanah has not complied. On Aug. 20, 2025, the courtroom ordered sheriffs to close down NEC’s headquarters and arrest its commissioners if property seized didn’t meet the debt owed. Sheriffs padlocked the principle entrance earlier than NEC’s attorneys persuaded the courtroom to delay the motion, citing the presence of worldwide friends on the constructing.
Regardless of repeated guarantees to settle, NEC has but to make cost. M-Tosh’s authorized staff has since filed a garnishment request, which stays pending.
Critics observe that whereas NEC has constantly paid worldwide distributors, together with overseas corporations that print Liberia’s poll papers and ship them by way of chartered flight, it continues to default on native contractors.
“It’s unprecedented and shameful,” one critic stated. “She was suspended by the President for poor management after the 2023 elections, significantly for failing to make sure employees obtained hazard advantages and allowances. She was reinstated and instructed to settle arrears, particularly after returning $6 million to the state. However that motion was not about integrity — it was about greed.”
NEC’s ongoing disputes with native distributors have renewed issues about its monetary administration and institutional credibility because the physique accountable for safeguarding Liberia’s democratic course of.
Alphonso Toweh
Has been within the occupation for over twenty years. He has labored for a lot of worldwide media retailers together with: West Africa Journal, Africa Week Journal, African Observer and did occasional reporting for CNN, BBC World Service, Sunday Occasions, NPR, Radio Deutchewells, Radio Netherlands. He’s the present correspondent for Reuters
He holds first MA with honors in Worldwide Relations and a candidate for second grasp in Worldwide Peace research and Battle Decision from the College of Liberia.
