Monrovia – Liberia’s cultural ambassador Julie Endee is urging every Liberian to vote ‘yes’ to all propositions in the controversial December 8 referendum.
Ambassador Endee said voting ‘yes’ to the national referendum means reducing the tenure of the president, and giving other Liberians the opportunity to serve their country, something she said will help move the country forward.
She made the statement at a press conference in Monrovia on Friday, December 4, 2020.
“We are appealing to you vote ‘yes’ so that those of us who have family members who are to be dual citizen can be,” she said.
Ambassador Endee call for ‘vote yes’ to the pending referendum comes amid controversies and huge debate from political actors and ordinary citizens over the conduct of the referendum.
However, Ambassador Endee stated that the Liberia Crusaders for Peace was hired to create awareness and promote the ‘yes’ vote of the referendum.
“We were called, hired base on our capacity to be able to create awareness, sensitization and community engagements in the 15 counties of Liberia,” she said.
She continued: “It’s a bit challenging but we’ve been able to conduct a refresher training for supervisors and our supervisors after the training (TOT), they went to train the communicators and mobilizers. They have been trained and are now deployed in the communities to carry out the awareness messages.”
Julie Endee added that her team has been in the 15 counties providing education to Liberians on the national referendum.
“We were able to produce jingles and dramas on the eight propositions and we talk about the voting procedure to our people using 18 vernaculars of Liberia. It has been produced and sent to the various counties based on the vernacular spoken in that county.”
She added: “So, we have already sent it to the various community radio stations to educate our people on the referendum.”
Giving some voting tips on the referendum, Ambassador Endee said ‘yes vote’ on dual citizenship is represented by two passports, while ‘no vote’ is represented by one passport.
“On the dual citizenship you have the ‘yes vote’ of two passports and ‘no vote’ of one passport,” she said
Also, Ambassador Endee also said voting yes to the changing of the elections date from October to November is represented by sun while voting no is represented by an umbrella.
Ambassador Endee said to reduce the hearing time for elections dispute at the National Elections Commission from 30 to 15 days, to vote yes is represented by a big watch or clock, and to vote no is represented by a small watch or clock.
Also, to reduce the tenure of the president and vice president from 6 to 5 years, to vote yes is represented by a small chair and to vote not is represented by a big chair.
“If you go to vote, we want you to vote yes with a smile because you are doing it for your country,” Endee said.
Also for the Legislature, to vote the propositions on the Senate from 9 to 7 years, and the House of Representatives from 6 to 5 years, to yes is represented by a small chair while to vote no is represented by a big chair.
She, however urged Liberians to go to the polls on December 8 with the culture of peace.
“Let us embrace the culture of peace and denounce the culture of violence. Leaders will come and go but we will remain as Liberians. Elections will come and go but we will remain as Liberians. If we stand up in our young democracy and be able to go to elections and make sure that the rule of law prevails, I think that’s the best way we can live because without justice there can be no peace,” Ambassador Endee said.
Julie Endee became Liberia’s culture Ambassador in 1995, a title conferred on her by the Liberian Government and people having played a pivotal role in galvanizing support for Liberian artists in the diaspora and back home to use their skills to promote peace in Liberia.
Ambassador Endee was also crowned and named Traditional Queen of Liberia by the elders and Zoe’s of Liberia in 2000 for playing a key role in the peace process amongst the leaders of the Mano River Basin when the Republic of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea were at odds with each other.