Liberia: Pending Expiration of Cllr. Korkoya, Commissioners’ Tenure Could Be Reason Govt Is Withholding Funding for Midterm Election

MONROVIA – Sources within the Executive Mansion have hinted FrontPageAfrica that the failure of the government to provide funding for the October senatorial election is a planned orchestration of the government to ensure that the Chairman of the National Elections Commission, Cllr. Jerome Korkoya and the current Board of Commissioners do not participate in the preparation for the election.

According to the source, the NEC’s request is being deliberately delayed since Cllr. Korkoya and majority of the Commissioners’ tenure would be expiring on March 31. 

“This government does not have confidence in Korkoya’s leadership and how they will handle this midterm election. The midterm election from what we see is very vital to the ruling party taking into consideration how they lost Montserrado County. Therefore, sine Korkoya’s tenure is about to expire they’re playing delay tactics so that he can be replaced before they roll out fund for the election,” the source said.

Cllr. Korkoyah, was appointed by former Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, he replaced Mr. James Flomayan who conducted the 2011 presidential and general but resigned after a controversial error in presenting voting figures.

Cllr. Korkoya conducted the 2014 midterm senatorial election that took Weah to the Senate. He also conducted the 2017 general and presidential elections that brought Weah to the presidency and a couple of by-elections.

As per the Constitution, Commissioners are appointed by the President of the Republic of Liberia and shall serve for a tenure for seven years.

The current members of the Commission are: Jerome George Korkoya (LLB. LLM. JD) Chairman, Sarah Jegede Toe (Cllr.) Co-Chairman, Jonathan K. Weedor (MA) Commissioner, Samuel Z. Joe (MA). Commissioner, Jeanette A. Ebba Davidson (Cllr.) Commissioner, Davidetta Browne Lansanah (MA) Commissioner, Boakai Dukuly (MA, Cllr.) Commissioner.

Cllr. Jerome George Korkoya, Chairman of the National Elections Commission (NEC), last week expressed doubts over the possibility of conducting a “credible election” in 2020, due to the Commission being behind schedule to implement some pre-election activities.

“In my little experience, I do not believe we can achieve all that we should be doing by now effectively in keeping with transparency that should characterize the Special Senatorial Election in October of this year. And in term of how late we are, I think we are very late,” he said.

Cllr. Korkoya, appearing before the Senate Tuesday, February 25, he told the Senators that up to present, NEC is yet to receive a dime from the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. NEC had presented a US$17 million budget for the conduct of the election.

The NEC boss told the lawmakers that, since December 2019 where a commitment of US$7 million was made to get the process started, the Finance Minister is yet to make good on the commitment. He further stated that he has been informed by Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel Tweah that there is no allotment in the Budget for the election and that he (Tweah) needs to seek approval from the legislature to source funding for the election.

“This government does not have confidence in Korkoya’s leadership and how they will handle this midterm election. The midterm election from what we see is very vital to the ruling party taking into consideration how they lost Montserrado County. Therefore, sine Korkoya’s tenure is about to expire they’re playing delay tactics so that he can be replaced before they roll out fund for the election.”

– Source

Interference from Others

Cllr. Korkoya complained of interference from other government officials, whom he said are not election experts. According to him, these officials, whose names he didn’t call, make suggestions and interferences.

“That’s one of the problems we have. If people will leave the National Elections Commission to determine and make the technical decisions and people respect that, it is fine. But everybody is an election expert in Liberia. That is a problem; at the end of the day, they want credible results. We submitted the budget months back, and we did follow up,” Cllr. Korkoya lamented.  

The NEC Chairman also expressed fear that the government could run into paralysis with one of the wings of the bicameral Legislature becoming non-functional because of the lack of quorum due to the absence of 15 senators, who are set to go for election but might not due to the delay or lack of funding for the Mid-term Senatorial Election. 

He bluntly stated that the October election’s pre-activities are far behind schedule and that could affect its transparency.

“So, we have a period of exhibition where people will challenge names and Nationality of people names posted. 

“Under our constitutional arrangement the only way one can be a senator, he or she has to be elected by the people and commissioned by the NEC. As a Senate, if we don’t hold election in October, we will have a Senate short of 15 senators which doesn’t constitute two thirds. Without two thirds, we cannot have a Senate to concur with the House of Representatives, we cannot have a Senate to pass law,” he emphasized.