MONROVIA-National Youth Movement for Transparent Elections (Naymote), Liberia’s premier democracy advancement institution, has released it 7th citizens’ perception report focusing on the quality of governance in Liberia.
The report is based on a survey administered in July and August this year to a sample of 3,220 registered voters, of whom (56.2 percent were women and 43.8 percent men) in 46 electoral districts, constituting (63 percent of total districts) selected from the 15 counties.
Of this sample, 48.3 percent Liberians were between the ages of 18 and 35. This means that younger people mostly participated in the survey. This trend bring into line with the fact that young people constituted a little over 65 percent of the total number of registered voters in the 2017 elections.
Releasing the report at Naymote Office in Paynesville, its Executive Director, Eddie Jarwolo says over 72 percent of Liberians described government information sharing with the people as poor or very poor.
Mr. Jarwolo said as such the Liberian Government needs strengthen its information sharing with citizenry by fully supporting the Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS) for the System to adequately inform the public about government’s various development initiatives.
He said besides, the Information Ministry including the Presidential Press Section need to also be supported in that direction.
“If the citizenry are to praise government for what it is doing to better their livelihoods, it must be done by media by showing and telling them what national government is doing, or else they will not appreciate government with the many efforts it is applying”, Mr. Jarwolo narrated.
It also revealed that 78.3 percent of Liberians described the performance of elected and appointed officials, (mainly Senators, Representatives, Ministers, Superintendents, Directors, among others) making of decisions for Liberians as very poor.
This, the report said has caused the living conditions of the people to be very difficult ranging from safe drinking water, health, education and the economy.
He said the report pushed the public trust in the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) to 92 percent, from 2019 was at 78 present; while there was an increased public trust in the Liberia National Police (LNP) from 56 percent in 2019 to 71 percent with declined of 78 percent of the public speak of not trusting the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) as compared to 57 percent respondents in 2019.
However, Mr. Jarwolo said 68 percent of Liberians are very satisfied with the way democracy is working in the country. In Naymote’s 2019 report, spoke of57 percent were satisfied with the way democracy was working in the country, which suggests a sharp increase in citizens’ level of satisfaction with the quality of democracy in Liberia.
The report, Naymote Executive Director further indicated highlight that over 69 percent of the Liberians described government performance in handling the fight against COVID-19 pandemic as good or very good.
Moreover, Mr. Jarwolo said the findings of the report also show that generally, citizens are not happy with the state of the economy. “This is unhealthy for a fragile state like Liberia because a weak economy is a sign of vulnerability and with a huge unemployed and youthful population, the potential for instability and violent tendency can be high”, he pointed out.
Purpose of the Report
This is an exercise conducted to assess citizens’ perception on the quality of governance in Liberia.
Naymote strongly believes that exercise of this nature, that gauge’s public opinion and present to stakeholders, will help strengthen democratic governance, consolidate peace, and improve public service in Liberia.
The results are intended to assist national government and other stakeholders to make better decisions about governance in Liberia, and those things citizens are most concerned about.
Comments are closed.