Monrovia – The Movement for Economic Empowerment (MOVEE), of former Central Bank governor Dr. Joseph Mills Jones has blamed the Code of Conduct for their party’s dismal performance in the October 10 presidential and legislative elections.
Report by Edwin G. Genoway, Jr – [email protected]
MOVEE in a statement said the introduction of the Code of Conduct by the Unity Party-led Government was not in the spirit of inclusiveness and fairness.
The party said the Code of Conduct was disruptive, targeted and tantamount to abuse of power and done to the extent of skirting around the spirit and intent of the Constitution of the Republic.
MOVEE said the Code of Conduct created an un-level playing field, saying the document only targeted Dr. Jones – “The Code of Conduct harmed the electoral process and, in particular, created an un-level playing field for the Movement for Economic Empowerment whose Standard Bearer was the principal target of the Code.
Not only was it offensive to the doctrine of democratic participation, the Code ultimately beclouded the minds of our supporters and well-wishes with uncertainties, adversely impacting the performance of our party,” the statement reads.
The MOVEE also noted in its statement that the electoral process cannot be considered as fair because of the adverse effects on supporters and well-wishers of the Movement for the Economic Empowerment and its standard bearer from the very start of the electoral process.
“As we have said, MOVEE participated in the electoral process on an un-level playing field”.
“MOVEE has a strong auxiliary support base that has at least 300,000 registered members in our data base. Our registered partisans processed with ID cards exceed 200,000 so that means we had about half a million membership and well-wishers in our data base.”
The party said the reported 12, 800 votes cast in favour of Dr. Jones, Standard Bearer of the Movement for Economic Empowerment, is less than 3 percent of the number in our data base.
“This is a record of unidirectional change of mind of potential voters over a relatively short period of time.”
“While this may be possible, the question is, how probable is it?
“The concerns of MOVEE are heightened against the high incidents of irregularities reported by a number of parties and other stakeholders.”
These allegations of irregularities, including poor management and inefficiencies hang over the integrity and credibility of the electoral process.
The Movement for Economic Empowerment (MOVEE) says it is particularly disturbed by report of emotional stress on voters in locating polling places, problems causing some voters to walk away without voting and challenges faced by the elderly, physical challenged and pregnant women.
During the first round of the elections, there were reports of stolen ballot boxes, mix-matched tally sheets and poor lighting.
There were also an unprecedented number of more than 88,000 invalid votes.
MOVEE wants all of those issues be addressed immediately by the National Elections Commission (NEC) and all other arms of the government of Liberia with jurisdiction over electoral related complaints.
MOVEE is also concerned about questionable sources of campaign financing and the misuse of public resources which also created an un-level playing field for the political process.
“Again, this raises the question of the fairness of the electoral process. It will add credibility to the process, were NEC to provide a definitive report on this matter of financing and spending by political parties. And we look forward to such a report.”
The party however thanked the international community; including, but not limited to, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United States of America (USA), the European Union (EU), the Peoples Republic of China, etc. for the support to the electoral process.