Monrovia – In a special congratulatory message, the Standard Bearer of the New Liberia Party (NLP), Rev. Dr. Joshua Turner has extolled President-elect Joseph Nyuma Boakai on his historic victory to the presidency.

It could be recalled that a barely a week ago Liberia’s elections management body – the National Elections Commission (NEC) officially announced former VP Boakai of the former ruling Unity Party (UP) as the winner of the recently conducted 14 November 2023 Presidential Run-off Election.

According to the presidential final tally report consolidated released by the Commission from across all 5,890 polling places, the presidential ticket of Candidates Boakai Joseph N. and Jeremiah K. Koung of UP obtained the highest votes of  814,481, which constitute 50.64 percent over Weah George Maneh and Jewel Howard-Taylor of the CDC’s 793,914 or 49.36 votes.

Accordingly, in his congratulatory message, Rev. Dr. Turner praised the former Liberian Vice President for his consistency in pushing for the change the country so desires, while at the same time being politically tolerant in the midst of some offensive verbal attacks against his person during the entire course of the political process.

The NLP standard bearer is backing the President-elect to succeed at the helm of the presidency and has therefore pledged his commitment to work with him at all levels of the country’s development process.

“On behalf of the New Liberia Party, my family and in my own name, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude for the successful elections conducted by the National Elections Commission. A special congratulation goes out to the winner of the poll, Ambassador Joseph Nyuma Boakai, who has convinced us that indeed, he is the real father of the land as shown through his high level of political tolerance,” said the NLP political leader.

With all scheduled and set for the President-elect to take charge of the state of affairs on January 22, 2024, the renowned Liberian politician craved the indulgence of the former Vice President to live up to his commitment of tackling development holistically.

“We were so happy to listen to the promise from our President-elect that his government will implement the development agenda of Liberia holistically so that everyone everywhere feels the impact of the government. We believe that this plan is in the interest of national healing and reconciliation for a country that has been widely divided on political lines,” he urged.  

“With that promise, we are confident that Mr. Boakai will extend development across the country including building the roads in the beautiful region of Southeastern Liberia, which for years has suffered the fate of rural neglect,” added Rev. Dr. Turner.

Monrovia – With just twelve days left until Liberia’s Presidential and general elections, the nation’s Supreme Court has scheduled arguments for all crucial election cases on Thursday, September 28, 2023.

By Victoria G. Wesseh

The Supreme Court, sitting in its 7th day of a special session and signed by the Clerk of the High Court, has listed the cases to be heard as follows: Unity Party versus the National Election Commission, an alleged violation of Chapter 4 of the Elections Law; Dr. Thomas Nimene Tweh versus Siah Tandapolie, New Liberia Party, James Marwleh, Emmanuel K. B Togbah, and others.

The Opposition Unity Party has taken a serious stance against the National Elections Commission (NEC) for what it calls the body’s hesitation to release the Final Registration Roll (FRR) to political parties and independent candidates.

On Tuesday, September 26, the Unity Party filed a request before the Supreme Court of Liberia for a Writ of Mandamus against the NEC, citing several reasons.

The decision by the Unity Party comes days after concerns were raised by one of its propagandists, Martin Kollie, in a social media post that drew the attention of Senator Abraham Darius Dillon and others. They subsequently instructed NEC Boss, Davidetta Brown Lassannah, to appear before the upper house.

Dillon, who appears to be a staunch supporter of the presidential bid of Unity Party Standard Bearer, Joseph Nyumah Boakai, also led a gathering of UP supporters to the NEC Headquarters to make the same request.

However, the day following his call for the FRR to be released, the Unity Party filed a petition for the issuance of a mandatory Writ of Mandamus compelling the NEC to perform its specific legal duties to certify the FRR for voters by location for various legal reasons.

Mandamus is a judicial remedy in the form of an order from a court to any government, subordinate agency, or public authority to perform a specific act that they are obliged to do under the law, akin to a public duty or a statutory duty.

According to the Unity Party, as a duly registered, certified, and accredited political party, they have an obligation to ensure that the NEC complies with the election laws when the election body fails to do so.

“The petitioner states that, in accordance with the duties assigned to the National Elections Commission by the New Elections Law and by a Supreme Court opinion, the NEC is mandated to publish and provide political parties and independent candidates with copies of the Final Registration Roll of all registered voters, broken down by locations in every electoral district in the country,” noted the UP petition.

On August 29, NEC Chairperson Davidetta Brown Lassannah appeared before the Liberian Senate and, under oath, promised to provide the FRR by September 18, but failed to do so.

The UP petition further noted that a communication was sent to the NEC Chairperson, requesting the FRR, as, in accordance with Section 16.1 of the 2023 voters’ roll, the NEC may take necessary measures to clean or correct any inaccuracies discovered on the voter’s roll.

The UP wants the Supreme Court to declare it a mandatory process to compel the NEC to publish the FRR, emphasizing that it is crucial for the integrity of the voters on Election Day.

The UP petition also informed the court that, in line with Section 16.5 of the 2023 Voters Registration Regulations, the FRR for each magisterial area should be available at the magisterial office for public inspection during normal business hours.

Additionally, citing Section 16.6 of the 2023 Voters Registration Regulations, the UP stated that the NEC may provide stakeholders with electronic copies of the Final Registration Roll in color and in a secured form. However, they want the court to make this provision mandatory, as the opposition party believes it is essential for maintaining the integrity of the voters on Election Day.

The UP argues that the NEC’s failure to publish the FRR and provide copies to political parties and independent candidates constitutes an irregularity that could undermine the integrity of the voters on Election Day.

The UP petition also referred to a Supreme Court decision in the Liberty Party versus NEC case, where the court mandated the NEC to fully comply with the standard of publication of the FRR.

Therefore, the UP is urging the NEC to clean the FRR to remove multiple names and identification numbers, and to provide hard copies to all election magistrates and polling places across the country, as required by the law.

The UP also wants the court to prohibit the NEC from allowing those whose names are not found.