Montserrado – A group of rock crushers on the Monrovia-Kakata highway skipped voting in Tuesday’s Senatorial by-election and opted to go and find their daily bread for their families.
Report by Bettie K. Johnson-Mbayo, [email protected]
Kinmah Kpadeh, 32, voted in previous elections, but decided to skip Tuesday’s by-election, which happened simultaneously in Bong and Montserrado Counties because “the lawmakers have no plans for us.’’
“They only fight for their own selfish gains,’’ he said. “I can vote for President and Vice President, not representatives and senators because they don’t have interests in their constituents,” he added.
Urias Kermue, 29, also told this newspaper that he didn’t vote because of the ruling party’s decision to put up two candidates who are already serving in the House of Representatives — Rep. Saah Joseph, District 13, Montserrado County and Rep. Marvin Cole, District 3, Bong County into the race.
“The two lawmakers,” he further added, “are not interested in representing the interests of the citizens. They are simply looking to make more money.”
“They are focusing on their riches and you want me to stand under the sun to allow them get more money?’’ he asked sarcastically; adding: “I better crush my rock.’’
William Flomo, who heads the rock crushing business in Walker Hill on the Monrovia-Kakata Highway, spoke of his disappointment with the candidates running in the by-election.
Other contestants in the Montserrado race were: Josephine Francis, a former representative of district number 1 in Montserrado, Bernard (DJ Blue) Benson, Michael Tipayson, and current district 10 lawmaker Yekeh Kolubah.
Flomo said they were not interested in voting because ‘’no one came here to tell us that they want us vote for them.”
Of the 50 men and women crushing rocks on the site, 35 are high school graduates and 15 are still in secondary school.
The workers use their little earnings from this strenuous, laborious work to pay their kids’ school fees and support their families.
“We go out to vote, hoping that we will get a scholarship, but as soon as they (candidates) win, they don’t have time for us,’’ Flomo said. ‘’But during election period, they want us to leave our busy schedule and go in line to vote for them.”
Martha Sakpolo, a single mother of two, ages 10 and 7, said she didn’t vote because she had to work to support her children.
“I don’t feel happy,’’ she said. “The country is hard, so I had to come and crush rock for food for my children.’’