Opposition Leader Mr. Alexander B. Cummings discloses here that he has appealed to the international community to help the Government of Liberia with technical support to conduct census before the 2023 presidential and general elections.
Mr. Cummings reiterates that not conducting the census before the elections will risk the constitutional legitimacy of the polls in 2023 and its outcome, which could undermine Liberia’s peace and democracy.
Addressing a news conference on Monday, June 20, 2022, at his office in Old Road community, Monrovia, Mr. Cummings noted that since 2018, the Weah-led government has failed to conduct the census.
“The conduct of the National Housing and Population Census is an important constitutional duty of the government, and a tool for economic planning and development”, he stresses.
Mr. Cummings, who is Political Leader of the opposition Alternative National Congress (ANC) was put on trial early this year by the State following drummed-up criminal charges, but the government was constrained to drop the charges due to lack of evidence.
He remains one of the main challengers to incumbent President George Manneh Weah in the pending elections and has vowed to make Mr. Weah a one-term President.
He further warns that conducting the 2023 Elections without first conducting the census could breach the Constitution and render the government that would emerge unconstitutional.
The Constitution of Liberia requires the government to conduct census after every 10 years and draw up new constituency demarcations that would allow election of more representations in the House.
The last National Housing and Population Census was conducted in 2008 during the administration of Ex-president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, which set the country’s population at nearly (3,476,608) four million people.
After three suspensions of the census, the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) has set March 2023 to conduct census, six months before the elections.