Voice of Liberia

FORUM  FOR  THE ESTABLISHMENT  OF  A  WAR  CRIMES  COURT  IN  LIBERIA
THE ANTI-WAR ADVOCACY WING OF THE PROGRESSIVE ACTION FOR CHANGE
Capitol bye pass, Monrovia; +2316-626-209

November 7, 2009

Press Statement

As an anti-impunity movement absolutely committed to advocacies that ensure the existence of a functional democratic architecture, justice, good governance and the rule of law, we cannot shrivel from the responsibility to bulwark a guidepost that ensures that the November 10^th Senatorial bye-election be held without fraud.

As various party and independent campaigns spend sleepless nights strategically exploring ways and means to make fair gains at the polls, there are allegations of a master plan to devise what may turn-out to be a “Grand electoral fraud’ in the ensuing Senatorial by-election. A highly unfailing source existing within the precincts of the nation’s elections umpire has confided the grand conspiracy, a stratagem, if permitted to be implemented, that will humiliate the electorates, thereby leaving the entire process at the determination of vote-robbers already unleashed.

Whilst we are in no easy position to verify this very critical disclosure emanating from the chief conciliator of democratic matters in Liberia, campaign characteristics, especially those pertaining to the ruling Unity Party, and dangerous steps being employed by the National Elections Commission, substantiate the conjecture of a terrible hoax awaiting the pending process.

Our uncertainties about the unfolding electoral quandary as leaked-out by a government insider, consequently demonstrate a planned ‘fraud-scheme’ as unraveled in the following moves by NEC and the UP-led Urey campaign:

(1)     the National Elections Commission, in its approach to reissue voter registration cards, proceeded to issue cards with blurred images; on most of these cards, pictures and other important data of the car-bearer are not clearly visible, making it less complicated for the wrong card-bearers to cast ballots if a NEC officer decides to look the other way;

(2)     It’s dependably learnt that political parties and independent poll watchers (though present at voting centers) will be distanced from the voting logs, an opportunity for compromising election workers to permit a scheme of any magnitude. This would further make it unlikely to compare pictures and data of a card-bearer with the original specimen in the logs, an otherwise requirement to authenticate the voter’s eligibility.

(3)     It is generally expected that the pending by-election will generate less turnout, unlike the high turnout of 2005. Lots of voters may have traveled to different constituencies, or abroad; others may have less interest, or will be restricted by unforeseen barriers; yet still some potential voters, like the late Hannah Brent, may already be deceased. The National Elections Commission may not have all the details, but it already knows the percentage of the 2005 logged-voters that will not participate. Hence, it may choose to easily manufacture ghost voters, or non-registered voters that could utilize cards of eligible voters who did not participate in the re-registration process that just ended.

(4)      From all unfolded realities, the pending by-election has already been marked by vast unleveled playing-field, and wanton irregularities; that the state will roll all its financial powers and reroute tax-corrupted public resources to champion an individual campaign, with unflinching open support from the President, is an injustice that cannot allow the process to meet the minimal regional standards of electoral discipline.

(5)     It’s obvious that marketers were under direct presidential mandate to turnout for the marching Urey crusades, or risk loosing market tables; civil servants likewise, had their share of the presidential threats; even cabinet ministers mounted the Urey rostrum, too afraid to bring their loyalties to question, they used state resources to campaign for Mr. Urey in ways they would have doubtedly done for themselves. This only makes it likely that, the Elections Commissioners, whose appointments come from the Executive, can be no different from the Finance Minister; he abandoned his job on a working day to campaign for Mr. Urey.

(6)     All of the above crowns up with an unyielding determination by all sides to win at all cost. For the ruling party’s campaign, it is felt that the 2005 allegedly falsified elections-claim would be legitimized if the opposition wins the pending crucial bye-election. On another obverse, any gloomy and murky performance by the ruling party in these contestations will point to the low-esteem of the incumbent establishment.

Without a doubt, the above analysis is the eventual source of great burdens on the back of the ruling elite, which makes “Organize vote-robbery” more likely than any serious talk of a free and fair election. Notwithstanding, whilst we understand the dilemma of the incumbent administration, we unequivocally call on the National Elections Commission to come to an adroit understanding of the implication of its constitutional obligations to the peace-yearning people of Liberia. Whilst the NEC may enjoy financial largesse from the Executive branch as provided for by law, whilst commissioners appointments may be subservient to the caprices of the President; said commissioners were employed and paid to be our larger democratic preservatives, guiding democratic procedures that ensures the daily happy survival and peaceful coexistences of every Liberian and those foreigners within the peripheries of our borders.

Therefore, as eligible voters cast their ballots on November 10^th, the NEC must fully get ready to take-up responsibility and act honestly, contrary to what is allegedly gushing out of its whirlpool of proverbial political tsunami. The NEC must refuse to yield, for to yield to shameless agents of political kismet is to deny peaceful sleep to our newly born ones who are left traumatized just by listening to the horrors of a fourteen-years; the NEC must assume an upright position if it has never seen fit to do so; in so doing it shall keep violence and anarchy tied to the bottomless chasm and help us cement the flimsy peace and keep rebuilding lives already made difficulty by the devastating years of crisis. Above all else, the NEC must conduct these crucial elections and walk home free of suspicion, not just from the voters, but from the never-deceiving conscious natural in every man. This is how the NEC will please God in the event and avoid taking the ultimate blame for any chaos that inevitably follows vote-robberies witnessed in quasi-democratic procedures in countless countries.  This is the Justice we demand at the polls; free, fair and transparent senatorial by-election.

Signed: _______________

           Mulbah K. Morlu, Jr.

           National Chairman

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