The National Election Commission hired Antoinette Yancy, a biometric voter registration agent, in District 10, but questions about her independence were raised by Montserrado County District 10 lawmaker Yekeh Kolubah, a vocal opponent of the Weah-led administration.
Even though Yancy denied the allegation that she is not a partisan of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), Kolubah and the team resisted her serving as a registrant.
Kolubah said, “We have an issue. CDC wants to steal the election in favour of Josephine Davis, which we will resist.”
He revealed, a lady known as Antoinette working on the instructions of Mulbah K. Morlu and Josephine Davis had been uncovered at the Muslim building, as Senior Staff of NEC.-
“We are calling for her immediate arrest,” the lawmaker said. Antoinette Yancy, an NEC worker in District 10 accused of sending a message to CDC’s chairman Morlu encouraging more CDCians to register in the area.”
While Representative Kolubah claimed that his intelligence Bureau intercepted the message meant for the CDC Chairman.
Yancy denied her involvement and said her phone got missing during a riot in the District. She was assigned to the NAMUWA center In District 10, Montserrado County with Center Code: 30078.
She explained that her WhatsApp account was opened on the missing phone and that she had had no access to her phone since the riot, an issue which she did not report since it reportedly happened.
NEC Terminates
On the other hand, the National Election Commission has terminated[ read last paragraph of the Press release] the services of Antoinette Yancy, one of its Temporary Staff, who served as a Registrar at the Namuwa English and Arabic School in District #10, for acts inimical to her status as a BVR staff member.
The National Election Commission decided following an investigation it convened at the weekend.
The report of the said investigation established her involvement in activities which the Commission said have the propensity to undermine the integrity and credibility of the Commission.
How is the Vetting done?
Prince Dunbar, Deputy Communication lead says, the NEC puts up applications, after which candidates are vetted and successful candidates sit an aptitude test.
Following this process, he said the list of successful candidates is printed and posted for citizens to do verification if it is established that any of the candidates are inflicted, the community can raise that, and the NEC can launch an investigation into the claim, other than that, the NEC does not go around doing a background check of contractors that are hired by the commission, instead, the check is done by the community.
Given the results of the inquiry, it is reasonable to conclude that NEC does not perform background checks on individuals with whom it contracts. Additionally, we were unable to confirm if Yancy works for Davies or whether Weah intends to rig the election.
This story was produced with the Center for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) support.
