MONROVIA – Renowned human rights activist, Adama Kiatamba Dempster, has issued a caveat to the National Elections Commission to take charge of the electoral process by punishing campaign violators.
By: Gerald C. Koinyeneh – [email protected]
Mr. Dempster, secretary-general of the Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia said until the National Elections Commission conducts its task independently by investigating and holding campaign violators accountable, he foresees more violence in the days ahead.
“The Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia stressed that until the National Election Commission conducts its task independently by investigating and holding violators of electoral/campaign violence accountable on the basis of its electoral guidelines and the Farmington River Declaration, there will be more electoral and campaign violence. The worst is yet to come…. There has to be punishment or penalty for those in violations,” Mr. Dempster said in a statement issued on behalf of the Human Rights Platform.
Dempster’s call comes in the wake of a recent violent altercation between supporters of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change and the opposition Unity Party that left several people from both sides injured.
Both sides blamed the other for instigating the violence.
On the first day, supporters of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change paraded through Monrovia’s streets, carrying a casket adorned with images of former Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai, the opposition Unity Party’s standard-bearer. Chanting anti-UP slogans, the supporters declared that their demonstration symbolized Amb. Boakai’s political demise.
Dempster condemned all those behind the violence and revealed that the human rights community is monitoring and documenting the various accounts of the elections, adding that respect for electoral guidelines and the Farmington River Declaration signed by all sides is fundamental.
The Farmington Declaration signed by political parties and independent candidates under the auspices of the National Elections Commission, ECOWAS and the UN, affirm their commitment to holding peaceful, free and transparent elections.
“Human rights in elections applied to all sides. No one party or candidate has more rights than the other. When people or institutions signed and agreed to a policy or protocol/guidelines and are found violating those very agreements… they should be punished regardless of ruling party or oppositions or independent candidates. The human rights community, civil society, religious community, citizens, the Liberian people, regional and the international community seek peaceful elections.”
With less than two months until Liberia’s landmark presidential and legislative elections which are being entirely conducted and governed by the National Elections Commission and the Liberia National Police in the absence of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the stakes are high.
And the international Community is also monitoring the process. This week, the United Nations through its envoy to West Africa and the Sahel, Leonardo Santos Simao, called on Liberia and its people to refrain from violence.
On his inaugural visit to Liberia, Mr. Simao met with major stakeholders including the National Elections Commission (NEC), President George Weah and other presidential candidates, the security sector and the civil society.
Addressing a press conference at the end of his visit, Mr. Simao said Liberia has gone through a difficult moment, and with 20 years of uninterrupted peace, it is incumbent on all Liberians to ensure the ugly past is not repeated.