Monrovia – The integrity of the October 10 elections is being questioned here and there.
Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
“So, after much consultation and initial review of substantive evidence, I find it my duty and responsibility as a Liberian that is dedicated to creating change and reform, to explore challenging the purported outcome of the recent election.”
“To this end, we have engaged expert assistance to conduct detailed review of our findings with a view to verify and pursue every available avenue, legal and otherwise, to ensure a fair, transparent and valid election result.”
Both voters, legislative and presidential candidates are raising red flags, terming the results coming out of the elections as invalid.
Some have threatened lawsuit as well.
The irregularities observed during the elections were glaring, very embarrassing for some registered voters, too.
It ranged from omission of names from the voters roll to sudden changing of voting precincts without prior notice.
These loopholes have created the avenue for many presidential candidates to challenge the results coming out of the elections.
The standard bearer of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), Alexander B. Cummings has joined Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine of the Liberty Party, Benoni Urey of the All Liberian Party in challenging the October 10 results.
At a press conference at the ANC headquarters in Monrovia on Tuesday, Cummings said while he is thankful for the peaceful process and impressive turnout, he’s very concerned “about the integrity and subsequent validity of the recent election outcomes.”
“I am also disturbed by the reportedly thousands of Liberians that were denied their constitutional right to vote due to influences and negligence in the administration of the process.”
Like Cllr. Brumskine, Alexander Cummings also named stolen ballot boxes, mix-matched tally sheets, centers moved without notice to voters, intimidation of poll watchers and unprecedented number of invalid votes and turned away voters as evidence that the election process lacked the capacity, preparedness and consistent application of rules to ensure that votes of Liberians were protected with a guarantee of the results that will reflect the true will of Liberians.
“During my campaign, I outlined reasons why we are where we are as a country, consistently noting that if we keep doing the same things, we will not get different results. Today, I find that truer than ever.
“The acceptance of an incompetent, inefficient and rigged electoral process is an illustration of that expression. By accepting current election results without challenge amid the numerous and widespread improprieties, we the Liberian people, would again be accepting the same behaviors and tolerating the same injustices.”
He cautioned that Liberia will never change Liberians continues to tolerate mediocrity and corruption in any facet of the electoral process.
“So, after much consultation and initial review of substantive evidence, I find it my duty and responsibility as a Liberian that is dedicated to creating change and reform, to explore challenging the purported outcome of the recent election.”
“To this end, we have engaged expert assistance to conduct detailed review of our findings with a view to verify and pursue every available avenue, legal and otherwise, to ensure a fair, transparent and valid election result.”
He, however, said the ANC would accept the outcome of the election as the will of the people if it was fair and competently conducted.
Urey Feels Cheated
The standard bearer of the All Liberian Party has officially written the NEC claiming that votes attributed to him from Grand Bassa, Margibi and Bong Counties did not represent his presence in those counties.
The Chairman of the NEC, Cllr. Jerome Korkoya acknowledged the complaint and said it has been forwarded to the Hearing Committee for investigation.
Brumskine Calls For Reelection
Raising similar concerns as Cummings, Cllr. Brumskine says the October 10 election was void of the minimum standards required for the conduct of free, fair and transparent election.
“The October 10 elections did not pass the minimum standards required for free, fair and transparent elections.
These elections were characterized by gross irregularities and fraud which undermined the integrity of the elections and deprived thousands of Liberians their constitutional rights to vote.
Based on our assessment of the evidence available, the results of these elections are not valid,” he told journalists on Friday.
According to Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine, the Liberty Party is conducting an in-depth investigation and will present to the National Elections Commission and evidence-back report to the National Elections Commission (NEC) for further action.
Cllr. Brumskine named the alleged stuffing of ballot box by a NEC presiding officer in Nimba; the alleged breaking of a ballot box seal in Bassa, the late opening of polls at some centers, and the omission of names from the voters roll, among others as some of the fraud and irregularities that flawed the elections.
“The Liberian people deserve to know what was done and who did it. And they deserve a valid, transparent election.”
“So many Liberians were deprived of their constitutional right to vote; we will, therefore, be requesting a re-run of the election.”
“The burden of history will be appropriate laid where it should,” he asserted.
84,000 Invalid Votes
Liberians from all walks of life have also expressed concerns over the credibility of the elections and questioned the huge number of invalid votes.
According to the NEC, about 84,000 invalid votes were counted during the counting process.
But some Liberians believe this number of invalid votes wouldn’t have been attained had the NEC conducted proper civic education and taught voters how to mark the ballot paper.
“If you looked at it critically, NEC knew what they were doing; I think they had another motive for doing what they by not training the staffs that were conducting the process.”
“If you could see how irritating the NEC staffs were on the voting day, you wouldn’t be asking me how I see the election.”
“The poll workers were responsible for the all those invalid votes, and I want to believe they took instructions from the bosses at NEC,” he stated.
“This election is interesting my brother, so tell me, who are those 84,000 plus voters that spoiled their ballots? So how is NEC really feeling about the huge number of invalid votes?
I think this tells me that NEC did not do well in their sensitization process; maybe Korkoya was fighting and concentrating on his nationality battle rather than focusing on our process,” Eddie Martin of the University of Liberia noted.
Eddie further stated that the various political parties and politicians did not do we as well to sensitize voters in order to avoid the huge number of invalid votes.
“If our various political parties and politicians would have taken the responsibility to sensitize those they were seeking votes from, the huge number of invalid votes would have dropped drastically — maybe to around 10,000 or less, but everyone were focusing on how they can pull crowd and forgot to teach the people how to vote them in office,” he added.