BOMI COUNTY – Bomi County Civil Society Organization (CSO) grouping elections have created serious tension and division in the county amongst CSOs, affecting the smooth workings of the National Civil Society Council of Liberia (NCSL), the mother organization for all legal organizations operating in Liberia.
By Edwin G. Genoway, Jr(231886458910)-[email protected]
The conflict has seen some candidates filed in protest, while others calling for a rerun of the process.
Bomi CSOs is under the National Civil Society Council of Liberia. The NCSCL is an apex body of all legally operating Civil Society Organizations of Liberia with a mandate to coordinate the activities of Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) in Liberia, represent and harness wider CSOs views, promote dialogue amongst stakeholders, promote good governance and foster global partnership amongst others.
Bomi CSO Grouping in November 2021 went to election to elect its county officials and Mr. Umasco Kamara was declared winner as County Coordinator and Ms. Veronica Johnson was inducted into Office.
The election results sparked a conflict amongst CSOs in the county and then caused the NCSL to set up a reconciliation Committee to mediate and reconcile the Bomi CSO members.
The Committee after months of fact findings and dialogue with various aggrieved parties in an attempt to reconcile the parties.
Immediately after the elections of the Bomi County CSO Groupings, the National Civil Society Council of Liberia through its leadership, constituted an independent mediation and reconciliation committee for the purposes of mediating and finding an amicably resolution of the ongoing post electoral dispute of the Bomi County local chapter of the council.
The National Civil Society Council of Liberia as per its constitutional mandate in 2021 adopted guidelines for the holding of county chapter elections which focus on qualification for membership, eligibility for the Executive Committee and county leadership, eligibility for candidacy and schedule and timeline for conducting the election.
There were two sets of eligibility criteria as per the guidelines adopted. The eligibility criteria for the Executive Committee or county leadership, and the eligibility for criteria for candidates.
Bomi County categorized under regional 1(One) was to adhere to the guidelines aforesaid and as to submitted to the Regional coordinator who was charged to administer the election by and through the National Election Commission magistrate office.
The following positions were declared vacant in the Bomi election to include; County Coordinator, Co-Coordinator, and Secretary. With the exception of the County Coordinator, the rest of the positions was won by acclamation and on white ballot.
Hence the only position contested for was the County Coordinator for which there were only two contestants namely, Veronica Johnson and Omasco Kamara.
The election which was held on October 15, 2021 declared Omasco Kamara as winner with a total vote of 37 and Veronica Johnson with a vote of 35.
This result was objected by madam Johnson with the filing of an official protest letter to the head of the National Council Madam Loretta P. Kai on November 21, 2021.
The protest letter basically focused on breached of the council’s constitution on eligibility criteria for candidates and the council delegates, conflict of interest on the part of the presiding officer of the election committee, and invalidation of the election result by the Regional Coordinator Lincoln Johnson on a local radio station in the County.
Based on the aforementioned protest communication in conjunction with the disqualification of Mr. Omasco Kamara by the Regional Coordinator Lincoln Johnson, Madam Veronica Johnson was announced winner and county coordinator, which was met with stiff resistance from the later Mr. Omasco Kamara.
After the commissioning of the mediation team by the council, members met on two occasions at the offices of the Interreligious Council of Liberia September 7, & 9 2022, respectively to strategize on the best approach to utilize in mitigating the crisis at bar, and to discuss logistical support for the team from the National council.
The second segment of the mediation focus on bringing all the parties together for a meeting of the minds and finding a lasting resolution void of litigation.
One of the parties elegiac spoke with the committee, Mrs. Veronica Johnson expressed gratitude to the mediation team for accepting the role of mediating the ongoing leadership crisis that had engulfed the local chapter of the civil society council in Bomi County.
She informed the team that she had served in several positions in the council especially on various committees, and have ably represented the council and demonstrated sound leadership with excellent what she called ‘person to person’ relationship in the county.
Mrs. Johnson noted that though she initially did not intend to contest in the elections, she was petitioned by several CSOs in the county to contest because they believed in her leadership and furthermore that there were no qualified candidates, especially female, for the County Coordinator Position.
“After my consultations with majority of the CSOs in the county who encouraged me to contest, and considering the gender factor, notwithstanding the education requirement, I decided to participate in the process,” she told the committee.
Madam Johnsons told the team when she was reliably informed that the former chairman of the council, Mr. Boima Sando, was the one conducting the elections as Chairman, she filed a protest to Lincoln Johnson, Regional Coordinator of the National CSOs Council of Liberia which was accordingly ignored.
Mrs. Johnson told the panel that because Mr. Boima Sando had allegedly earlier boasted openly that he would prevent her from wining the position at all cost, resorted to her filing a protest against his chairmanship of the election committee.
She further emphasized that the other contender, Omasco Z. Kamara, was not qualified as per their constitution because he did not meet the minimum education requirement of at least a Bachelor’s Degree.
She alleged that Boima who also did not meet the educational requirements was allowed to serve the Council as chairman for over 13 years based on mutual consent, therefore he allegedly ignored the educational qualification provision in the constitution.
She also noted that the organization Mr. Omasco Z. Kamara had used to contest against her had been inactive for over seven years which contravenes the constitution.
She alleged that the denial of qualified CSOs to participate in the process was due to the fact that the Chairman of the election commission, noticed that they could have voted in her favor. She indicated that based on the aforesaid she protested, which accordingly was ignored.
Mrs. Veronica K. Johnson further said the matter escalated when the County political authority decided to accommodate the leadership of Omasco Kamara thus denying her the opportunity to serve the county council.
She specifically named the Superintendent of the county for resisting any chance that would allow her to be inducted as chairperson.
Another party to the conflict is Mr. Omasco Z. Kamara. During his testimony before the committee, Mr. Omasco Kamara expressed gratitude to the team for intervening through mediating the dispute that had brought the local chapter of the civil society in Bomi County to public disrepute.
He informed the team that his organization the ‘Liberian Children foundation’ was a registered CSO in the County. He indicated that he had previously served twice as Regional Coordinator under the previous National Leadership of the civil society council of Liberia.
He informed the body that Mr. Boima Sando was authorized by Mr. Lincoln Johnson Regional Coordinator to conduct the elections.
Mr. Kamara submitted that relative to the enforcement of the qualification requirements for contesting for the head of the County’s CSOs Council, no one including Mrs. Johnson raised an issue or challenged his qualification nor notify him of his disqualification from participation.
However, he admitted that he had received information that at least two persons registered after the deadline for registration but was unaware of a protest from anyone.
He alleged that it was only after the voting, which he described as very peaceful, that he began to hear about protest over his qualification when he had already been announced winner of the poll.
He informed the team that he had won with 37 votes while his opponent, Mrs. Veronica Kumba Johnson had 35 votes therefore he sees no reason or justification of being denied his seat as county chairman.
In furtherance of this disclosure Mr. Kamara informed the panel that after the election committee had announced him winner of the election, the National Chairperson Madam Loretta Kai had disallowed him from taking seat on the basis of the protest filed by Madam Veronica Johnson since he did not meet the eligibility requirement on education.
Speaking to his educational credentials he informed the team that he has two Associate degrees in Accounting and Criminal justice from the Bomi community college.
He informed mediators that he will not opt for a re run of the process, “I will accept nothing less than being inducted into office as chairperson, I have the support of more than 90% of the CSOs in the county that are in support of my leadership,” he said.
He argued that if he gives up his right by accepting a rerun or disengaging from the process, he would be setting a bad precedent would be set for future elections.
For his part, Mr. Lincoln Johnson also expressed gratitude to the team for accepting to mediate and said he look forward to an amicable resolution of the crisis that continue to affect his administration in the region.
Mr. Johnson informed the team that he takes full responsibility for the crisis in the Bomi County which he asserts resorted from reneging on an obligation assigned to him, and delegating same to Mr. Boimah Sando in which he failed to implement properly.
He submitted that although he authorized Mr. Sando to disqualify Omasco Kamara from participating in the election, he (Boima Sando) refused the directive and proceeded with allowing Kamara to participate.
Johnson however told the team that despite Mr. Sando’s action he will not shift the blame to him or anyone else.
He revealed that he should have halted the entire process but failed to do so thereby neglecting his leadership role given him.
He further admitted that one of the errors he made was to have amended the election guidelines particularly the section on eligibility criteria for what he termed as to accommodate more participants.
He assumed this was a leading cause of the stalemate in the process.
In furtherance of the team interaction with Mr. Johnson, he confirmed that Veronica protested to him regarding registration, physical offices, and education requirements of Mr. Kamara.
“She was the only actual qualified candidate based on all of the requirements as captured in the original guidelines, most of the contestants did not meet the qualification requirements but I allowed them because I wanted broader participation,” the told the team.
Mr. Johnson also admitted that during the registration process, Veronica was the only qualified candidate on the approved contestant listing of which he had validated by signing thereon, and instructing Boima Sando to proceed as was submitted.
He indicated that Omasco Kamara did not qualified on two counts: having a functional office and lacking the requisite educational requirement.
Mr. Johnson however recommended that the results of the election be nullify and a re-run be held using the original guidelines.
He agreed to admit this fault before the leadership of the council and reveal the truth about his mishandlings of the process which he said was marred by fraud in its entirety.
Boima Sando, Election Committe Chairman Election Committee informed the team that he worked directly with the regional coordinator Lincoln Johnson for the conduct of the county leadership election.
He narrated that on no occasion did he received any directive from Lincoln opposing the participation of Omasco Kamara in the election.
He confirmed that the election committee conducted the process using the guidelines submitted by the County Coordinator.
He indicated that Lincoln was present during the debate and later made a roll call with all delegates present and then the election proceeded.
He further said that in order to ensure accountibility and transparency, the names of eligible voters were verified before the casting of ballots.
The delegates voted and at the end of the process Omasco got 37 votes while Veronica got 35 votes.
Hence, Omasco was declared the winner in the presence of the regional coordinator Lincoln who approve the results.
When quizzed as to whether the organization Omasco registered was authentic, he indicated that the organization has a physical office and that he has all of the application packages as a proof of his assertion.
On the issue of whether he had received a protest communication concerning the process, he acknowledged receiving a courtesy copy of a complaint file by Veronica Johnson to the Chairperson of the Council Loreta Pope.
He said he did not directly receive any complaint before, during and after the election.
However, he accused the National Council Chairperson of taking a unilateral decision to nullify the result of the election and declared Veronica winner without consulting the committee that conducted the election.
“I see Loreta’s decision as a conspiracy to destroy my hard-earned reputation I have built over the years while serving the civil society in various capacities in the region,”
He said he had suggested to Loreta to visit the county to clarify her decision and ensure stability in the county but to date she has not. He recommended a run of the election.
Mrs. Loretha P. Kai- Chairperson Civil Society Council of Liberia expressed gratitude to the committee for accepting the challenge of mediating the leadership crisis.
She informed the mediation team that the election of county officials using the guidelines set by the council, which was in accordance with the constitution was to be conducted under the leadership of the regional coordinator Lincoln Johnson.
She indicated that the decision by the regional coordinator to devolved his authority to Boima Sando was not to the knowledge of the national leadership clearly stating that he acted on his own.
She further told the team that the regional coordinator had earlier informed her of Omasco’s disqualification prior to the commencement of the election.
Madam Kai told the team that to the best of her knowledge the position of County Coordinator had only one qualified contestant as per the standard set through the election guidelines.
She revealed however that she had received a call from Veronica protesting as a consequence of a breach of the eligibility criteria by the Boima Sando’s election committee, that allegedly allowed Omasco who was previously disqualified by the regional coordinator from participating.
Upon receiving the call from Veronica, she immediately informed the regional coordinator to put a halt on the entire election process.
She expressed dismay when she was later informed that Omasco had indeed participated and had allegedly won the election which was outrightly rejected by the National council. Sheikh Oumaru A. Kamara …. Member/ Advisor
Madam Kai is of the opinion-n as with other stakeholder that a re -run of the entire electoral process be held utilizing the guidelines as adopted by the national council.