PHOTO: Some disappointed members of the blind community in the Tubmanburg City Hall, anticipating the debate
By Frank Sainworla, Jr., fsainworla@yahoo.com
TUBMANBURG, Liberia- All five of the Bomi County Senatorial candidates, including former House Speaker Alex Tyler (CDC), current Senator Sando Johnson (CPP) and Representative Edwin Snowe, (Independent) on Wednesday evaded a scheduled debate at the Tubmanburg City Hall to the dismay of locals, as most of them gave “flimsy excuses”, says one of the organizers.
This area is over 71 kilometers west of Monrovia, and two of the other candidates who failed to show up are Dr. Zoebong Norman (Rainbow Alliance), former President of the Bomi Community College and Mr. Soko Adama Dorley (Independent).
“They have let their people down,” said one of the locals who went to watch the debate that never was. It is said that the local radio stations in this county has been trailing promos about the holding of the debate for days.
If they had shown up, the December 2, 2020 debate would have been the first time when the five candidates in the December 8 Special Senatorial Election would have been in a forum together to debate the issues and tell the people of Bomi what their platforms are, something that took citizens by surprise..
Supported by USAID through Internews, the abortive debate was organized by the Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP). And all was set with the hall prepared and citizens in Bomi including the visually impaired/Blind people seated with their white cane. They expression of frustration on their faces, after learning that not even one of the candidates had arrived, having waited for nearly two hours.
“I’m actually feeling disappointed. I did not expect that,,” said Tony Gibson, a visually impaired told www.newspublictrust.com.
Tony said the candidates “missed a golden opportunity to dialogue and show love and care” for the people whose votes they say they want.
Some locals attributed the failure of the candidates to attend Wednesday’s Senatorial debate to the deep-seated hostilities among some of them in the race, with one local remarking that “election is not (enemey-ship) enmity”‘.
Some thought that the civility of the political debate would have provided a Palava Hut environment for the competing candidates to have at least met one-on-one and at least shake hands, perhaps something they haven’t done during the course of the ongoing political race for the lone senate seat in Bomi.
“I feel very bad” said another visually impaired citizen in Tubmanburg, Sando Johnson who is not a relative of candidate Sando Johnson.
Bomi is considered one of the hotspots as regards the potential for electoral violence, as few armed police officers were deployed at the city hall to provide security.
CEMESP’s Executive Director, Malcolm Joseph told the audience in the Tubmanburg City Hall around 1Pm GMT (some three hours after the debate was due to have started), that the organizers got assurances from all five candidates that they would have attended the debate days earlier. Most of them even confirmed their participation as late as Tuesday evening, it was said.
Two of them, former Speaker Tyler and Senator Sando Johnson told this news outlet via mobile phone that they were in Monrovia at the time making last minute preparations for campaign activities.
But the CEMESP Director the reasons given by the candidates “seem not to be justifiable, saying that “it is an affront to democracy and Bomi.”
According to him, the Bomi Senatorial candidates have missed an opportunity to interact with their people and their competitors both in the hall and through live radio broadcast that was expected to have been done.
He emphasized that it is a means of “cultivating a culture of accountability”, which the political debates are intended to do.
A text message from one of the candidates to the debate organizers said: “I’m not well. I’ve an upset stomach, perhaps from a workshop food yesterday. I’m so sorry.”