Montserrado – The low voter turnout in Tuesday’s Senatorial by-election is a threat to Liberia’s young democracy, said Frances Greaves, Chair of the National Civil Society Organization (NCSOCL) Council of Liberia.
Report by Bettie K. Johnson-Mbayo, [email protected]
Greaves, who spent the day touring polling stations, said she was disappointed that many people stayed home instead of getting out and vote for the replacers of President George Manneh Weah and Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor both of whom represented, at the Senatorial level, Montserrado and Bong Counties respectively before they ascended.
“It is a wakeup call, if we are not careful, no one will vote in future elections,’’ she cautioned.
Greaves said civil society organizations should reflect on the implications of the low turnout in the by-election and begin to map out a holistic strategy to engage citizens on the importance of voting in future elections, especially in 2020 for the senatorial elections and the presidential election in five years.
She further stated that the low turnout is an indication that Liberians do not have a strong desire for democracy.
“They are reluctant because they do not know the candidates; and there was low voters education,” Greaves said. “People are losing their enthusiasm and there is a need for more awareness. There should also be an analysis of why Liberians are withdrawing from democracy,’’ she added.
Most civil society organizations, which are normally involved in monitoring elections in the country, did not also participate in Tuesday’s by-election, she said.
For example, she named the Election Coordinating Committee (ECC) as one of the local organizations that did not send monitors to observe the by-election.
But Mr. Malcolm Joseph, a steering member of the ECC, stated that they had challenged the legality of the by-election at the Supreme Court.
“We are not observing this election because the ECC petitioned the Supreme Court,’’ Joseph said. “We believe that the by-election is unconstitutional.”
The Legislature, Joseph said, had no right to change the date of the election. ECC raised concerns about the change in the election date in a letter to the NEC dated June 1. The NEC did not respond, so the EEC took the matter to the Supreme Court last week.
“We feel it’s unconstitutional to change a constitutional provision,” Joseph said. “The reason we filed last week was because there were challenges, no lawyer wants to challenge the President. Every lawyer we met told us that the case is political.”
Joseph questioned why the Supreme Court ignored its complaint but ruled on a petition filed by the political party, Victory for Change.
In its petition, Victory of Change asked the high court to determine the constitutionality of the 54th Legislature’s decision to hold the Senatorial by-election on July 31. Victory for Change was represented by Cllrs. Emmanuel Tulay and Samuel Kortimai of the Tulay and Associates Law offices.
On Monday, the court ruled that the party failed to demonstrate that they had the authority to challenge the election. However, the court ruled that the NEC erred in changing the election date.
Joseph said the Supreme Court did not respond to its petition.
“The highest court ignored the (ECC’s) petition and that is sad, gloomy,’’ Joseph said. ‘’It’s a breach of the rule of law.’’
The ECC has been observing elections in Liberia for over eight years.
“We are not crying, but we are asking for the constitution to be respected,’’ he said. “We think that the instrument used to conduct the election is unconstitutional. The reason we filed it last week was because there were challenges. No lawyer wants to challenge the President. Every lawyer we met told us that the case is political.”
By law, the by-election should be held three months after a vacancy is announced or made public. The by-election should have been conducted on May 8, but the government said it did not have money. Cllr. Jerome George Korkoya, Chairman of the National Elections Commission (NEC) and Finance and Development Minister Samuel Tweah were at loggerhead over funding for the by-election. NEC postponed the elections indefinitely.