Monrovia – Two former Chairpersons of the National Elections Commission (NEC) would be testifying against the NEC in the on-going electoral fraud case.
Report by Henry Karmo, [email protected]
Mrs. Frances Johnson-Allison who chaired the Commission in 2005 and presided over the Presidential and General Elections that year while Mr. James Fromoyan presided over the first round of the 2011 elections, but resigned before the runoff due to controversy over the first round results.
The pair would be testifying for the Unity Party.
The two former Commissioners had earlier announced their support for presidential bid of Mr. Joseph Boakai of the Unity Party.
The ruling party which joined the opposition Liberty Party in claiming that the October 10 elections were fraudulent is poised to produce 15 witnesses to prove its case.
Over the weekend, the chairman of the Unity Party, Wilmot Paye, testified on behalf of the party.
Also, the party’s vice chairman for NEC and Inter-Party Affairs, Mr. Cole Bangalue, and Mr. Josiah Jorkeh, former Director of the Civic Voter Education at the NEC also testified against the Commission.
In his testimony, Jorkeh told the hearing officer, Muana Ville, that the fraud and irregularities that marred the October 10 elections did not come by accident they were occurrences that were orchestrated by the leadership of the Commission.
According to him, the Commissioners could not easily agree on whether to do biometric voters identification or a manual voters identification.
“The NEC heads found it difficult to agree whether to do biometric voter registration or manual. Disorderliness of the Voter registration exercise characterized by omission voter names has led to the irregularities and fraud,” he said.
He also stated as reference that his name was written on a list referred to as an addendum list by the presiding officer during the October 10 elections because his name could not be found on the official voter roll.
Jorkeh contested as an independent candidate in District #3, Montserrado County in the October 10 elections.
Jorkeh said: “I consider myself a Liberian who voted illegally by the omission of my name on the final Voter roll and I would like to testify that these are cogent accounts that led to gross irregularities.”
The evidences produced by the UP legal team include, polling manual, presiding officer worksheet , presidential record for a polling place in Grand Cape Mount County where the voter roll accounts for 305 registered voters, but the result of the October 10 accounted for 321 voters.
