Liberia: Ruling Party Urges Partisans to Refrain from Violence After District 15 Attack

Monrovia – The Executive Committee of the Congress for Democratic Change condemns in the strongest possible term recent acts of violence perpetrated against candidates Abu B. Kamara of the CDC and Telia Urey of the four collaborating opposition parties. The Executive Committee warns that such acts of violence are a threat to the peace, democracy and the economy of the country. Violence has no place in our politics, irrespective of the scale and tone of our political differences.

Renounce Violence

The Executive Committee also thanks National Chairman Mulbah Morlu for reaching out to candidate Telia Urey to convey to her the party’s condemnation of violence, express regrets for the unfortunate situation she encountered, provide assurances of its support for speedy and impartial investigation, and hold discussion on the path toward peaceful elections and civil political dialogue.

We call on partisans of the Coalition for Democratic Change and of the four collaborating political parties to refrain from violence, whether in District 15 or in future elections. The Committee enjoins upon all partisans of political parties the obligation to renounce violence and show restraint even when provoked by political counterparts.

The Executive Committee notes that leaders of political parties bear the greatest onus and responsibility to ensure discipline among their respective partisans and to reduce messages of hate, anger and bitterness that tend to poison the climate of public political discourse.

The Executive Committee warns that violent, vitriolic rhetoric from all sides engenders violence and calls on political leaders to show maturity in their respective political statements. The Committee avers that civil intellectual disputation, dialogue and consensus building are the traditional conduits for the conduct of electioneering and other forms of politics. The Committee affirms that violence has no place in these democratic
processes.

The Executive Committee thanks the Liberia National Police and the Ministry of Justice for launching an immediate investigation. The Committee however calls for the investigation to be speedy and impartial, noting that individuals who took the law in their own hands must face the full weight of the law. The Committee notes that Liberia is a country of laws not of men.

Morlu Reaches Out to Telia

The Executive Committee also thanks National Chairman Mulbah Morlu for reaching out to candidate Telia Urey to convey to her the party’s condemnation of violence, express regrets for the unfortunate situation she encountered, provide assurances of its support for speedy and impartial investigation, and hold discussion on the path toward peaceful elections and civil political dialogue. The Committee hails the National Chairman’s show of leadership as necessary to calm existing tension and to show that political rivalry in Liberian politics DOES NOT and should NEVER mean polity enmity.

The EC mandates the National Chairman to broaden and sustain these engagements with national leaders of the four collaborating political parties to construct a path to peaceful national political dialogue among parties, with the aim of reducing the prevailing level of vitriol in public statements emanating from leaders of all parties.

The Executive Committee reiterates its commitment to upholding the rule of law, uprooting violence as a means of political expression and to respecting the will of the Liberian electorate as vouchsafed through their democratic votes.