By: Wonderr K. Freeman, Attorney, Attorney, CFCS

Remittances play a huge role in many developing nations. This is even more so for Liberia. While this contribution is routinely discounted by the Liberian ruling elite—prizing foreign donors’ support over the diaspora’s concerns, the facts speak for themselves. Over a comparable period (2020-2024, 5 years), diaspora average annual remittances eclipsed the Government of Liberia’s (GOL) budget. This is an undisputed fact, even whilst unacknowledged. While the ruling elite may not acknowledge it, diaspora remittances may be a significant contributing factor to two decades of peace and tranquility. The core logic is that given the grand corruption and state dysfunction, and unlike the widespread unrest seen by their contemporaries in Kenya or Bangladesh, for example, the Liberian people have resigned themselves to calling up relatives and friends in the diaspora for assistance, as opposed to standing up to and opposing the domestic kleptocracy. So, the ruling elite continue their feasting on the public purse, expecting, of course, that diaspora remittances, foreign charities, loans, and donors’ support will pick up the slack. Since Liberia’s emergence from civil strife (2003-2005), this has been the unfortunate state of affairs. There is no incentive to change the status quo. Given that an impoverished citizenry is the corrupt politicians’ best bet for staying in office, there is no incentive to change. They can get votes for the price of a bag of rice, for some clothes, some token projects here and there, or for a paltry sum of US$20 or less. If nothing changes the nature of the vote, this is the way it is always going to be.

The hard fact of diaspora remittances as Liberia’s economic lifeline

Remittances are the lifeblood of the Liberian economy, especially given that fact that most of the GOL budget goes to the government officials in terms of bloated salaries, allowances, fake security operations and fake development projects—not to mention the additional scourge of corruption as a well-accepted way of life. Using a comparative period analysis, the GOL average annual budget (2020-2024) versus the average annual diaspora remittances eclipsed the GOL budget. Of course, with recurrent current expenditure running averaging 80-90% of total revenue, it’s pretty clear the average Liberian is surviving more thanks to remittances than to his “benefits and entitlements” as a Liberian citizen. This explains why there are no mass protests. Citizens’ emergencies get sorted by relatives and friends; while the average politician becomes even more incentivized to continue the misuse and abuse of GOL resources, counting, of course, on the culture of impunity that there will be no repercussions for the brazen corruption. So, notwithstanding the remittances, Liberia remains stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty, lagging all its neighbors and routinely ranking near the bottom of most socio-economic indexes and matrices.

Liberia still trails in many respected global development metrics

Notwithstanding the billions of dollars in tax revenues, donors’ support, and diaspora remittances, Liberia remains stuck in poverty. The UNDP human development index puts Liberia at #177 out of 191 countries measured, i.e., near the bottom of global human development. Also, in comparison to its West African neighbors, Liberia ranks the least for GDP per capita (at constant prices). For example, Liberia’s next-door neighbors, Cote d’Ivoire, and regional counterpart Ghana makes 3.6x and 3.3x the Liberia average, while other immediate neighbors, Guinea-Conakry and Sierra Leone’s GDP/capita exceeds the Liberia GDP/capita by 71% and 57% respectively. None of this reality seems to bother the ruling elite back in Monrovia. They make astronomical salaries, and whatever they don’t get in salaries and benefits, they steal. Amid widespread local poverty, they live a life of opulence. The schools are derelict and the hospitals are in disrepair. But this doesn’t bother them! There’s a long-standing tradition in Liberia that the children of the elites rarely go to school in Liberia, nor do they rely on the Liberian healthcare system. Naturally, they should not be voted into office. Yet, when elections roll around, counting on an impoverished citizenry, unenlightened and more often illiterate, local politicians simply put up a show of token projects, manipulate the system, or buy the votes outright. This Liberian legislature is currently full of individuals sanctioned by the US government for stealing from the public, yet voted into office by the very people they are accused of stealing from. This is the state of affairs in Liberia. It defies logic, but it’s so real! There is real potential that diaspora voting can sort a lot of this out. But the ruling elites are scared to death of this, even as the diaspora remains their favorite location for raising funds. If diaspora funds are good enough for aid, for electoral fundraising, surely their votes must equally be good enough to count.

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Why diaspora voting is the perfect complement to financial support

I have established that in recent years (2020-2024), the average annual GOL fiscal budget was US$765 million—marginally less than what the diaspora remits annually, US$767m. In terms of economic impact, it’s clear that diaspora remittances have a much greater impact on the socio-economic status of the average Liberian. This is because the Government of Liberia consumes at least 80% of the annual budget on itself—leaving only US$153m for its six million inhabitants. Ostensibly, this is why poverty runs rampant across Liberia. When you couple this dismal fiscal state with the breakdown in the rule of law and the long-running impunity from corruption, there is no way change is going to come. Worst of all, if all the decision-making is left to the local populace, and given the widespread poverty and the transactional nature of the voting, it’s unlikely the general vote will produce any significant departure from the results we have been getting thus far. We’ve seen warlords get elected, notoriously corrupt politicians get elected, even politicians on US sanctions are getting elected.

A growing global trend in giving diaspora citizens democratic space

What’s the possibility of diaspora voting in Liberia? If it is just a matter of logistics or technical issues, then this should not be a problem. Advancements in computer technology have made these technical and logistical issues much less of a concern. That’s why, according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), at least 145 countries allow one or more forms of diaspora voting (2025)[i], of which number, there are at least 41 African countries. That’s at least 75% of all African countries. As gleaned from the above facts, diaspora voting is now the norm, not the exception.

A legal framework that does not prohibit diaspora voting

If one looks at the Liberian constitution and the national electoral statute, there is no prohibition on diaspora voting. The absence of any prohibition in our constitution or [election] statutes validates the expression “Quicquid non prohibitum est, licitum est (what the law doesn’t prohibit, it permits.” Here is the Liberian constitution on voting: …

every Liberian citizen not less than 18 years of age, shall have the right to be registered as a voter and to vote in public elections and referenda under this Constitution (Art. 77.b).

Further legal enablers include the Election Law (1986) which provides thus:

Every citizen of Liberia who has attained the age of eighteen (18) years or older, may register as a voter, except one who has been judicially declared to be incompetent or of unsound mind or who has been disenfranchised as a result of conviction of an infamous crime and has not been restored to citizenship… Every voter shall be allowed to vote only in the constituency where he/she is registered. Elections Law, Chp. (3) §3.1.

Looking at the statutory language, it’s clear that physically living abroad is not a disqualifying condition. And that once registered, the voter may only vote in the very constituency she had previously registered. So, if neither the Constitution nor the Elections Law (1986) stops diaspora Liberians from voting, then why don’t they vote? I hypothesize it is down to regulatory issues, as well as technical and logistical issues. However, I posit that technical and logistical issues are subsumed under regulatory issues. So, if you solve the regulatory issues, the technical and logistical issues go away. Just like that. Bingo!!!

The question now becomes, who then has the primary responsibility for issuing the regulations to enable diaspora voting? If we go by the Elections Law (1986, Chp. 2, 2.9), the National Elections Commission must: Formulate and enforce guidelines controlling the conduct of all elections for public office, which guidelines shall not be inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution and the Elections Law—NEC must regulate.

But it’s doubtful if NEC will, on its own, champion diaspora voting, considering the fact that the law has existed forty (40) years and counting, and in those forty (40) years, NEC has been the sole organizer of elections in Liberia and has never once broach the subject. This reality places an onus on political parties, civic groups, and yes, diaspora Liberians to demand the necessary regulations to enable diaspora voting. The future of Liberia continues to hang in the balance as back-to-back government failures by the current ruling elites have left Liberia destitute and desperate for change. It is foolhardy to rely on the beneficiaries of the broken system to fix it. Expanding the electorate is one surefire way to ensure that the responsibility to decide the next election (2029) is granted to all Liberians—including Liberian citizens living abroad.

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[i] International IDEA, 2025, The Global State of Democracy, 2025, p. 74