The Carter Center has deployed an international electoral expert team to Monrovia to assess key political, electoral, and legal aspects of Liberia’s Oct. 10 general elections.
The Center was invited to observe this year’s elections by Liberia’s National Elections Commission.
The three-person expert mission, which began its work on Sept. 25, will analyze the broader context of the elections as well as the findings and reports from other observer groups. Due to its limited size and scope, the Center’s expert team will not assess the conduct of polling or counting nor make a comprehensive assessment of the election process.
The expert mission is led by J. Ray Kennedy, who headed the UN’s electoral team that supported the 2005 elections in Liberia and has collaborated with the Center in Liberia on several other occasions. Dr. Kennedy currently serves as a member of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.
The Center’s expert team will meet with an array of electoral stakeholders, including the National Elections Commission, political parties, civil society organizations, media outlets, national observer missions, security forces, and others.
After the conclusion of the electoral process, The Carter Center will publish a final report on key findings and recommendations for reform. The mission’s analysis will be based on international human rights obligations and standards for democratic elections. The Center’s election missions are conducted in accordance with the 2005 Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation.
The Carter Center has a long history in Liberia, dating back to the early years of the civil war and including multiple engagements by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The Center has been involved in some capacity in every election in Liberia since the civil war and deployed full observation missions for the elections in 1997, 2005, 2011, and 2017.
