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your Honor that these regulations were contained in our file from 2005,
2011 and 2014. This is to say that the addition to the roll is not the
making of this current board."
7. 1st Appellants say and aver that the Board of Commissioners (BOC)
committed a reversible error when the BOC, in its Final Ruling, failed to
take into consideration another portion of the Appellee's witness
Lighe's testimony. He testified that, "The staff themselves were overwhelmed. That was also supported by the fact that our staff was also
challenged. Prior to the conduct of these elections the Commission
taking clue from the election voters registration, were staff hired by the
Commission in carrying out the function. We wrote other stake holders
requesting assisting from professional Liberians. ... Unfortunately, we
got response from only the Angie Brooks Randolph Institute and, as the
result of political manipulation, there were rumors being spread wide
and far that Chairman Kokoya had intended to fraud the process by
bringing in presiding officers. And in order to satisfy those doubts, about
three hundred names that were submitted were withdrawn. So
basically, we went to the polls with those Liberians who were available.
Those Liberians who were not the most qualified but who availed
themselves to partake in the October 10 election. Monitoring reports
and even our own observation clearly states that staff at our centers
were challenged. They had difficulties in directing voters to their
assigned rooms; they had difficulties in finding names on the final voter
rolls in their polling stations. As a result of that, this caused
uncomfortable situation with some voters. This led voters to be weary.
These causes brought about congestion and delayed."
8. 1st Appellants say and aver that the Board of Commissioners (BOC)
committed a reversible error when the BOC, in its Final Ruling, failed to
take in consideration that although, "the fact that a voter's particulars
did not appear on the FRR will not be ground to invalidate any document
or results concerning the October 10, 2017 elections," it certainly
deprived such voter of his/her constitutional right to vote, making the
entire elections a sham, and should therefore be rerun, and the 1st
Appellants so pray. A case in point is Debora Harris of Grand Bassa
County, who testified that on election day she was a poll watcher for
Liberty Party. When she went to vote she was told that her name was not
on the FRR. She testified that she went from Polling Place to Polling Place,
but was without success in finding her name on the FRR, so she and many
others like her, as she testified, did not get to vote. Her testimony
remained unrefuted by the Defendant.
9. 1st Appellants say and aver that the Board of Commissioners (BOC)
committed a reversible error when the BOC, in its Final Ruling, failed to
take into consideration Section 3.2 of the enabling Regulation on Polling
and Counting, which provides that, "If a person has a valid Registration
Card marked for a precinct, but whose name cannot be found on the voter
registration roll for the precinct, subject to paragraph 3, the presiding
officer shall permit the person to vote, if the person's Registration Card is
verified through the SMS verification system managed by the NEC." Also,
allowing individuals carrying "valid Registration Card," whose names are
not found in the Voter Registration Roll, is subject to two conditions: (i) the