MONROVIA – The Board of Commissioners of the National Elections Commission (NEC) has declared Cllr. Augustine Chea of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) as the winner of the November 20, 2018 Senatorial By-election in Sinoe County, despite claim of ballot stuffing.
Report by Henry Karmo [email protected]
The Board of Commissioners, through its Chairperson, Cllr. Jerome G. Korkoya said, the decision followed an investigation conducted by its magisterial team in Greenville City after its system detected that at polling place #1, with precinct code 39054, Jarpuken Pulbic School, the number of votes recorded on the record of count exceeded the number of registered voters at that polling place.
The NEC Chairperson told a news conference Monday, 26, November 2018 that immediately following the detection that the number of votes recorded exceeded the number of registered voters, the polling place in electoral District 1 was immediately quarantined, pending the outcome of an investigation.
Cllr. Korkoya said during the investigation including a recount of the votes in the polling place #1, our NEC team discovered that used ballot papers in the box did not exceed the total number of 377 registered voters in the polling place.
“However, it was discovered during the investigation that the presiding officer simply recorded votes for candidates that were more than the actual votes obtained by them.
“That error was corrected immediately following the recount of votes, the NEC Boss told the news conference today.”
He said the decision of the BOC to declare Augustine S. Chea winner who obtained the highest votes of 5, 839 out of the total of 16, 598 votes cast was based on the results and in keeping with Section 2.9 (g) of the New Elections Laws of Liberia but that winner Chea will only be certificated after the disposition of the complaint filed by the CLP which is currently under investigation. According to the Chairperson of NEC, Cllr. Jerome Korkoya, the Coalition for Liberia Progress, CLP has filed a 13-count complaint of electoral fraud and irregularities.
On Friday, November 23, 2018 the National Elections Commission announced the final result of the Representative by-election in District #13, Montserrado County declaring Independent Candidate Edward Papay Flomo as winner.