On the 5 March 2024, the National Elections Commission (NEC) with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and partners (Sweden, Ireland, the European Union), and Democracy International funded by USAID, launched a nationwide Magisterial Level Lessons Learned of the 2023 General Elections in the 19 magisterial areas of Liberia. 

In accordance with the NEC’s longstanding tradition to conduct post-election review, the consultations held in the 19 magisterial areas from 5 – 14 March were launched in four regions - Western, Central, South-east and South-west. 

Under the theme, “Learning from Our Experiences to Improve Future Elections,” the activity encompassed all aspects of the electoral process, including activities that took place before, during and after the elections. The aim is to document the experiences such as successes and challenges from the elections that would be used to improve the performance of NEC in preparation for the next elections. 

Launching the consultations, NEC Chairperson Davidetta Browne Lansanah said the commission is desirous of soliciting actionable recommendations from stakeholders during the Lessons Learned.  

“Your presence here is important to help us to understand whether the process in terms of what we were supposed to do was okay and yielded good results. Maybe not everything was difficult or maybe not everything was smooth,” Lansanah said. 

She added that NEC aims to improve the electoral processes and procedures based on the valuable insights gained from the Lessons Learned.  

“We thank you for your role, participation, and support to NEC. We also want to appreciate that at the end of the elections, you have a voice as to how we should proceed for the next elections”, she emphasized. 

Nikolina Stalhand, Program Officer for Democracy and Human Rights at the Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia, expressed hope that the consultations “would play a big role in ensuring that future elections are even better by drawing on the lessons learned from the past elections.”   

Stalhand said Sweden is impressed that NEC and other stakeholders upheld democracy by conducting “transparent, credible and peaceful elections in 2023.” 

“We all saw the elections last year. We were very impressed by the work of NEC and other stakeholders in upholding democracy by having transparent, credible and peaceful elections,” said Stalhand. 

Reaffirming Sweden’s continuous support to the electoral process, Stalhand noted that Sweden has been supporting Liberia’s elections for a long time and continues to do so in partnership with UNDP and other partners. 

A post-election survey to gauge the view of the public on NEC’s performance during the 2023 elections will also be conducted.