Monrovia – The office of House Speaker Emmanuel Nuquay has issued a disclaimer over news reports that he (Speaker Nuquay) and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf want relaxation of the Code of conduct to allow everyone to participate in the elections.
Report by Henry Karmo – [email protected]
“On Friday, June 2nd, the Daily Observer carried a story on its front page under the caption “President, Speaker Want Code of Conduct Relaxed”.
In that story, the Observer insinuated that Speaker Nuqauy made the assertion at the recent meeting of political parties and state actors at the Monrovia City Hall but the office of Nuquay claimed the content of the story itself is far from the sensational headline the paper published,” a statement from his office noted.
“We reject and condemn the story as it lacks any iota of truth. At no time has Speaker Nuquay called for the relaxation of the implementation of the code of conduct.
When a legal instrument is passed by the legislature, signed into law by the President, got challenged by some citizens and interpreted by the Supreme Court as constitutional, it becomes a law of the land and it behooves all Liberians and those within our borders to respect it.”
At a news conferee Monday at the capitol building, Mr. Eric Kennedy, chief of office staff of Speaker Nuquay committed lawmakers to the process of ensuring that the elections are free, fair, peaceful and inclusive.
“Peace is indispensable to our democracy.”
“Peaceful elections are not new phenomenon in Liberia as there have been several elections since the return of our country to democratic governance. We want to commit ourselves as lawmakers to this process by ensuring that these elections are free, fair, peaceful and inclusive.”
Kennedy added that Speaker Nuquay’s call for a peaceful election doesn’t amount to relaxing the implementation of the Code of Conduct and believes that the media entity misconstrued the meaning and the contextualization of the word “inclusive”.