MONROVIA – Leading pro-democracy organization, Naymote Partners for Democratic Development has refuted claims that it inflated promises made by the Unity Party during the campaign period and after the October 2023 general elections.
By Gerald C. Koinyeneh – [email protected]
Following former Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai’s victory over incumbent President George Manneh Weah in the November 2023 presidential runoff election, Naymote released a report containing promises that were tracked from the winning party’s manifesto containing six pillars including its campaign rallies, media engagements, and public statements.
However, in a rejoinder two weeks later, the Unity Party through its Secretary-general Amos Tweh, said Naymote “was unable to disaggregate or distinguish between the commitments and the Agenda/pathways/strategies within the manifesto.” Tweh said in the UP Manifesto, the commitments were outlined and below the commitments were pathways or strategies – the ways and means on how the commitments would be achieved. Notably, he said contrary to Naymote’s claim that Pillar One has 58 promises/commitments, the pillar actually has nine commitments across various sub-sectors. He accused Naymote of mistakenly adding up the agenda items to the commitments- “which is not the case, and shouldn’t be.”
“This erroneous endeavor goes across all of the pillars as indicated by the NAYMOTE’s Report,” Tweh added.
However, responding, Naymote, through its executive director Eddie Jarwolo While the UP platform/manifesto contained commitments and agendas, there are clearly written promises that are actionable and can be tracked under the manifesto. “Naymote did not add any promises to this report; everything was identified and documented from the party’s manifesto, campaign rallies and public statement,” Naymote said.
Naymote said it views the UP agenda as a comprehensive plan that outlines the party’s overarching goals, priorities, and intended actions, if elected. Naymote argued that both political commitments and the agenda in the party’s platform are interconnected elements forming a cohesive governance framework. Naymote said since the agenda defines the party’s actions in fulfilling its commitments to the electorate, it considers them as trackable campaign promises to be evaluated to hold the party accountable upon assumption of office.
Regarding pathways and strategies, Naymote said it is currently using them to develop indicators for carefully monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the party’s commitments.
Responding to the UP claim of Naymote’s inability to disaggregate commitments according to sources, Naymote stated thatwhile the official UP manifesto remains the primary reference document for commitments made by the party and the president-elect, it utilized other credible and reliable sources for compiling campaign promises. These sources include both traditional and new social media platforms where public statements made by Mr. Boakai during the political campaign period in different counties across the country were reported and documented. It added that references to these sources were provided in the said report for verification and confirmation. It pointed out that the victory speech made by the president-elect was also a reliable source of documented campaign promises.
“We strongly believe that relying on different sources for documenting campaign promises provides a more complete and nuanced understanding of political commitments, fostering a well-informed public and supporting robust research, analysis, and assessment,” Naymote said.
The organization further noted that out of 93 campaign promises reported, 83 promises were sourced from the party’s manifesto titled “Unity Party Platform 2023: Building Liberia for Prosperity and Wealth Creation,” as contained in each of its six pillars. Additionally, eight promises were tracked from campaign rallies, and the President-elect made an additional two commitments in his speech delivered on December 20, 2023, following his declaration as the winner of the presidential election by the National Elections Commission (NEC).
Naymote, established in the early 2000s, has been a leading grassroots organization promoting democracy, governance, community organizing and civic engagement amongst Liberians.
For the past six years, Naymote monitored and tracked outgoing President George Weah’s performance in fulfilling the promises he made during and after the 2017 elections. These reports, according to Jarwolo, have played a pivotal role in promoting public accountability and facilitating constructive dialogues between citizens and the government. As a testament to their impact, political parties and civil society organizations consistently refer to the President Meter Report as a crucial reference document for assessing the Weah administration’s performance, he noted.
Jarwolo announced that Naymote will begin tracking the incoming government’s performance against these promises for the next six years after the inauguration two weeks from now.
