Monrovia – Unconfirmed results received by FrontPageAfrica has put independent candidate Edward P. Flomo in the lead with 34.4% in the just ended Montserrado County District 13 Representative by-election. He obtained 5,310 votes
Information received by this paper shows that Flomo is followed by John Weah (CDC) who has 31.6% with 4,879 votes; Cornelia Krua-Togba (UP), 16.5% accounting for 2,554 votes.
The public has expressed jitters over the delay of the NEC to release the results especially, Montserrado County District 13 since it is only a district. However, the NEC in its official calendar of events for the by-elections earmarked November 24 for the release of provisional results.
There has so far been no update from the Senatorial by-election in Sinoe County.
This is would be the first defeat of the ruling CDC in District 13 since the 2005 elections. The district is known to be a stronghold of the ruling party.
While campaigning for the CDC candidate John Weah over the weekend, President George Manneh Weah pleaded with residents of the district not to bring shame upon him by refusing to vote for his preferred candidate.
After closure of polls on Tuesday evening, Police officers under the command of Amos William, whose vehicle is marked 125, threw election observers, journalists and others out of the voting rooms when it was time for ballot counting.
Our reporters, who were at the Gabriel Kpolleh Memorial High School in New Georgia Estate, said neither Victor nor the National Elections Commission (NEC) staff, provided any logical reason to them on why they were being asked to get out when the election had reached its most critical part.
They didn’t ask them just to leave the rooms and hang around in the yard, but they were asked to totally get out of the entire compound and be outside the main gate to the entrance.
NEC accredited journalists from these media institutions, FrontPageAfrica, Okay FM, Fabric FM, Prime Radio, Daily Observers and other media institutions were denied entry to observe the counting process as they had been allowed earlier in the day to observe voters cast their ballots.
One of the observers of the independent candidate Edward P. Flomo, Melvin Thomas, expressed his frustration to FPA on how he as an observer of one of the candidates in the race, had been denied entry into the room where the ballot counting was being done.
According to him, the incident was premeditated by the ruling party to rig the election in favor of their candidate, John Weah.
Observers of other candidates and political parties were in total disbelief as this is strange in the history Liberian election since Liberians began actively taking part in voting process beginning in 2005.
Our reporters said after they had hung around for an hour and thirty minutes, with no sign of them being allowed back in, they and other journalists left the Gabriel Kpolleh School for other voting places, including the campus of Catholic-owned St. Michael in the same New Georgia Community.