MONROVIA – The Supreme Court of Liberia on Friday affirmed the ruling of the National Elections Commission that declared Representative Edwin Melvin Snowe winner of the December 8, 2020 senatorial elections in Bomi County.
Representative Snowe’s victory has been on pause since the end of the December 8, 2020 due to a complaint filed by former House Speaker Alex Tyler against the National Election Commission (NEC) on accusation of irregularities he observed during the process.
“Wherefore and in view of the foregoing, the final ruling of the Broad of Commissioners of the NEC which declared Edwin Melvin Snowe Jr. as winner of the December 8, 2020 mid-term election in Bomi County is hereby affirmed. The clerk of the Court is ordered to send a mandate to the NEC to resume jurisdiction.”
In the Supreme Court’s ruling, it stated that where an administrative agency has made its finding and those findings are supported by law, and backed by the records, the Court will not disturb the conclusions drawn and the ruling made thereon by the agency.
The Court also argued that the Appellant did not establish fraud and irregularities in the case and while there were errors committed during the election process which were brought to the NEC officials and corrected, the said errors did not operate to produce a different result other than the result of the mid-term election declared by NEC in Bomi County.
Amongst the issues raised in the petition, the CDC alleged that several tally sheets bearing Grand Gedeh County instead of Bomi County were discovered in the county (Bomi). The tally sheets marked Grand Gedeh with voting precinct CH Dewey District#1 Polling place one (1) Center code:033071 and voting precinct Malema Town District#2 polling place 1 center code: 0304 had on them results inserted for nine candidates while there were only five candidates in Bomi County.
“How possible would senatorial candidates from Grand Gedeh County become part of senate record of the count for senatorial candidates for Bomi County which constitutes gross irregularities and fraud,” the CDC said in the complaint.
According to the ruling party, they also discovered that several Senate record of count exceeded the total distribution of ballot papers per polling place.
The CDC also cited a voting precinct Gbah-keh, District #1 polling place #4, center code: 03006 which used 163 ballot papers while the unused, spoiled and discarded ballot papers were 550- bringing it to a total of 713 instead of 550 reportedly supplied to the center by the NEC.
The CDC further alleged that there were similar irregularities in the reconciliation of the ballot paper reportedly supplied and the number of used, unused, spoiled and discarded ballot papers at a number of other polling places including voting precinct Barmo Palava hut District #1 polling center 1, code 03002; Nyoundee Town Hall, District #2 polling place 1, center code 03007; Geveh Fahncee District 2 polling place 1; Mary Camp District 1, Sackie Town, District 1, polling place 1, center code 03042.