Monrovia – The Mandela Washington Fellows-Liberia (MWF), a flagship organization of the United States Government’s Young African Leadership Program, has extended its appreciation to Liberians for turning out in their mass number to vote peacefully in the October 10, 2017 presidential and Representatives elections.
Moreover, MWF-Liberia also congratulated the two political parties that make it to the second round of the presidential election (the ruling Unity Party and the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change).
The group recognized and acknowledged the peaceful participation of all political parties, the media, international partners, elections observers, and the entire citizenry for their collaborative effort during the first round that brought about a peaceful and mass turnout.
“We also salute the tireless effort of Mandela Washington Fellows and YALI Regional Learning Center Alumni, who were seeing engaging young voters through strengthening their capacities in peace building and informing them to vote in the Presidential and Representatives Elections.”
However, MWF-Liberia is worried over the unfavorable political environment being created due to the delay in the investigation of the lawsuit filed by Liberty Party and Unity Party and recent statement by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf saying that, the country economy is under stress.
“The recent short speech by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf about our economy being under stress can be proven if only we continue to do things that can jeopardize the peaceful transition of power and destabilize our peace and stability.”
“The reports of frauds and irregularities as complained by the opposition Liberty Party Leader, Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine, the ruling Unity Party and other political parties against the National Elections Commissions (NEC) through a legal process is welcoming.”
“Notwithstanding, we call on the political parties involved to abandon the lawsuit for the sake of continuous peace, economic growth and peaceful political co-existence and power transition.”
They called on all political parties to remain steadfast and committed in supporting a peaceful political transition and discourage any act that has the propensity to support unfavorable political transition.
They also called on supporters and partisans of political parties to remain dedicated to peaceful democratic transition.
MWF-Liberia admonished NEC to accelerate effort in adjudicating all electoral cases and ensure that all reported cases of irregularities be corrected and measures put in place to prevent such during the runoff election.
“As we go through these critical periods of our democratic transition, we Mandela Washington Fellows and citizens of Liberia, would like to call on the opposition Liberty Party, ruling Unity Party, national government, the Supreme Court, the National Elections Commissions, United States, ECOWAS, the AU, the UN, EU and other bilateral partners to continue their peaceful intervention and collaborative efforts into these processes.”