Monrovia – Police officers under the command of Amos William, whose vehicle is marked 125, Tuesday, November 20, threw election observers, journalists and others out of the voting rooms when it was time for ballot counting.
Report by Willie N. Tokpah, [email protected], Jackson F. Kanneh, [email protected] & Augustine Tweh, [email protected]
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.
At St. Michael, they were denied entry again by officers of the LNP, who were manning the gate of the high school.
“The incident is premeditated by the ruling party to claim victory for their candidate and is in line with what the President said few days ago that CDC will win the by-elections in District 13 and Sinoe County County at all cost,” Melvin Thomas, who was denied the right to observe the ballot counting for Flomo, said.
However, when President George Weah campaigned on last Saturday for his party’s candidate, he didn’t exactly say those words that Melvin attributed to him.
A female polling staff assigned at the Gabriel Kpolleh High School, who didn’t identify herself, justified that they had asked everyone outside because the voting rooms were crowded with supervisors, observers and journalists. However, they only realized the rooms being crowded when it was time to count the ballots.
She also stated that they had to call the police in because when those observers and others that they had asked to get out started raising tension, they had to call in the police to help bring things under control.
Another NEC official, who, too, didn’t identify himself said they had acted to protect all parties and their agents.
“The excess people who were standing here at that time anything could have happened that would have affected all of us badly. So, I said the other people who were not directly involved should be outside. That did not include members of the press, if the press had been asked to get out, too, it was unfortunate because the press is one those we rely on to send the information to the public. So if you were involved it was unfortunate.
“The rule is one party has an agent at a time, you cannot have three, four, five representatives on one candidate in one room,” he said.
Poor Turnout & Tension
Earlier in the day, the Montserrado County District 13 by-election began on Tuesday morning with very poor turnout with voters treking in sparingly to cast their ballots.
Despite this very low turnout, early signals of electoral violence began to brew among observers from the camps of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and observers of independent candidate Edward Flomo, at the William Gabriel Kpolleh Memorial High School in New Georgia Estate, in Gardnersville, Monrovia.
Our reporters covering the election activities in the district observed that the gate of the fence, which encircles the Gabriel Kpolleh School, had been unmanned properly, without security scrutiny.
As a result, supporter from both camps traded accusations that the other person had been illegally interacting with voters coming in to cast their ballot. The counter-accusations were building almost to the point where it would have led to scuffle between CDC observer Sylvester K. Goe and independent candidate Flomo’s observer, George Dweh.
Voter Complains of Lack of Proper Info from Polling Staff
One voter complained of some people not being properly ushered in the right rooms as a result of the polling staff giving those people scanty pieces of information.
“Room 30221 is where I supposed to vote but I have not found the room since I came here this morning,” she lamented.
Ruling Party Candidate John Weah
After casting his vote yesterday, Mr. John Weah, the candidate for the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) had boastfully stated: “This time 2018 I am a candidate of the ruling establishment, so I have my base. I got almost 5,000 votes as an independent candidate in 2011 and I still maintain that base. And now that base has been increased by the CDC base. CDC voters and people from others political parties, UP, LP, ANC, ALP among others who believed in John Weah. John Weah is the only best person in the race.”
He had earlier said that the last Saturday’s bloody election violence was unfortunate. He further stated that it brought the district to public disgrace and disrepute.