No census before elections, commission says

Liberia has no time or money to conduct a population census before elections in October 2005 that are due to return the country to democracy after a long and bitter civil war, Frances Johnson-Morris, the head of the National Elections Commission, said on Monday. Johnson-Morris, a former judge and human rights activist, said it would take nearly two years to prepare the ground properly for a new census and the United Nations and other donors had made clear that they were not prepared to fund such an exercise. "It is now clear to us that census will not be possible before elections," Johnson-Morris told a press conference in Monrovia. "The time is short, while the finance and resources that would require the holding of a census are not available," she added. The last proper census was carried out in 1984 and showed a population of 2.5 million people. Several political parties and pro-democracy groups have called for a fresh census before Liberia goes to the polls again in 15 months time so that the boundaries of electoral constituencies can be demarcated fairly. Nobody knows the present population of the densely forested West African country or how it is distributed. Tens of thousands of people were killed during the 1989-2003 civil war and over 350,0000 Liberians fled to seek refuge abroad. Half a million more were displaced within the country. Most descended upon squatter camps that grew up around the outskirts of Monrovia. However, international aid organisations estimate Liberia's current population at around three million. Johnson-Morris said that a well-conducted voter registration campaign would be a good alternative to a census. "We will conduct vigorous voter registration and listing to determine the number of persons in Liberia and in each of the electoral constituencies," she said. Johnson-Morris said the recently formed National Elections Commission was still consulting with Liberia's political parties about guidelines for conducting next year's poll, but she stressed that it would take place in October as scheduled. The commission had not yet worked out how much it would cost to organise the presidential and parliamentary elections, she added. Johnson-Morris said the National Elections Commission had not so far received any donor funding. It was currently working with a budget of US$125,000 awarded by the Transitional Government, she added. Johnson Morris served as Liberia's Chief Justice in the interim administration which organised the 1997 elections that bought former president Charles Taylor to power. She then became head of the Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice, a church-based human rights organisation. Liberia's constitution calls for a national census to be held every ten years. It was not possible to organise a population count during the 1990's because of the country's near continuous civil war.