MONROVIA – The National Elections Commission (NEC) has sparked controversy by announcing what is believed by some as an incorrect date for the 2023 Presidential Run-off Election. This decision has prompted concerns and backlash from legal experts, political figures, and the general public, who argue that it is a clear violation of the Liberian Constitution.
By Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
The Chairperson of the NEC, Davidetta Browne-Lansannah unveiled November 14, 2023, as the date for the presidential run-off election. However, legal scholars and constitutional experts have argued that this date goes against Article 83(b) of the Liberian Constitution.
Article 83(b) of the Constitution of Liberia clearly states, “If no candidate obtains an absolute majority in the first ballot, a second ballot shall be conducted on the second Tuesday following.”
Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe who participated in the October 10 presidential elections argued:
The NEC having announced the final result on today, October 24, 2023, the second Tuesday from the date of announcement of the final result will be Tuesday, November 7, 2023 and not Tuesday, November 14, 2023. There is no exception in the Constitution that would allow the NEC to use its discretion to change the second Tuesday to a third Tuesday or any other Tuesday. Therefore, NEC should immediately correct its decision and set Tuesday, November 7, 2023, as the date for the run-off, as mandated by the Constitution of Liberia.”
However, in a December 21, 2017 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Joseph Nyumah Boakai and James Emmanuel Nuquay, Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates at the October 10, 2017 Elections, and the Unity Party, all of Liberia, versus The National Elections Commission, represented by its Chairman, Hon. Jerome Korkoya of the City of Monrovia, Liberia, the Court opined that while it is true that Article 83(b) provides for the holding of a run-off election for presidential and vice presidential tickets when, in the first round of the election, no candidate in the categories mentioned herein obtained an absolute majority of the valid votes cast, the Article 83(b) provision predicates the second Tuesday on the “expiry of the period provided in Article 83(c,” not on a specific date set in Article 83(c). Thus, the “expiry” referred to in Article 83(c) is not a date but an event, and that event is not based on the announcement of the results of the first round of the election but on all of the intervening factors stated in Article 83(c).
