Women in Liberia have come together to kick against violence reportedly perpetrated against them in the electoral process.
In a Joint statement issued on Thursday, December 17, 2020, the women called on the Ministry of Justice to investigate and bring to book all those who committed acts of violence during the just ended December 8 elections and made a specific call on President George Weah to protect women.
“We request that President George Weah exhibits political will to protect women from all forms of violence including election-related violence,” the women coalition told President Weah, who some time ago branded himself “feminist-In-chief”.
BELOW IS FULL TEXT OF THE WOMEN COALITION’S STATEMENT:
Joint Press Statement on Election Violence by a Coalition of Liberian Women Organizations
The 14 years of civil conflict in Liberia provided a unique opportunity to reform the nation’s political institutions and processes in a way that has increased opportunities for women to participate in decision making. Much of the international peace-building efforts aimed at fostering sustainable and peaceful societies has focused on seizing this opportunity.
Elections, for example, offer women the chance to translate the new roles they assumed out of necessity during the conflict into formal political representation. However, elections also expose women to lingering discriminatory mindsets and cultural practices that are considerable barriers to their greater political participation.
On December 8, 2020, Liberians across the 15 counties went to the polls to elect senators in the Special Senatorial Election. Election Day was relatively peaceful.
But a coalition of Liberian women organizations, comprising women’s organizations and advocates of women’s rights, is particularly concerned about the recent attacks on independent senatorial candidate Botoe Kanneh, who is leading Gbarpolu County’s senatorial race featuring eight other candidates, all men.
Kanneh leads the Gbarpolu senatorial race by 449 votes (4722/25.68 percent); followed by Rep. Alfred Gayflor Koiwood of the ruling party, the Coalition of Democratic Change (4,273/23.24 percent). Madam Kanneh beat Koiwood and incumbent senator Armah Jallah in their own districts. Nomodatonau is Kanneh’s stronghold.
The National Election Commission (NEC) ordered a rerun in Nomodatonau because the town’s 2021 registered voters did not participate in the Dec. 8, 2020 election because Paramount Chief Magill Wuluah seized the ballot boxes and election materials.
The rerun was scheduled to take place on Dec. 15, 2020. The day before the election, the Chief Wuluah brought out the traditional male devil, a tactic intended to prevent Madam Kanneh and her supporters from entering the town to participate in the electoral process. In traditional societies, women are not supposed to see the male devil. We have reviewed video tapes where Gbarpolu County’s Superintendent J. Keyah Saah was seen threatening local officials that they would lose their jobs, if they do not vote for Koiwood, the CDC candidate. We are disturbed by the display of abuse of power and misuse of office by the Paramount chief and superintendent.
We have learned that Madam Kanneh and some of her supporters were threatened, beaten, and harassed by local authorities in the town of Nomadatonau, District 3, near the Sierra Leone border. Two of the young women working on Kanneh’s campaign were allegedly raped while in police custody, according to the team of women advocacy groups that rescued Botoe.
The local authorities also brought out the male “Country Devil’’ to intimidate Botoe and her supporters because they know full well that women are prohibited from seeing the male devil. Since when are cultural practices introduced into our elections?
We cannot have the country devil coming out at the behest of individuals who are looking for political gain and using him to intimidate and disenfranchise women’s voters. We also want to state that our “country devils’’ are an integral part of our traditional heritage of which we are immensely proud. This abuse of such an historic symbol is denigrating the very fabric of our nation and putting us up to ridicule. We must remember that the laws of Liberia supersede these traditional practices.
The use of the devil during elections and in any statutory process is wrong. That is not what our traditional authority is used for. This attitude is corrupting the practice of our tradition. Our laws prohibit the abuse and misuse of our traditions. There are specific traditions and practices when the country devil is called out. This does not include election. The Country Devil is prohibited from coming out during election.
We strongly believe that the absence of enforcement of the law by the security sector has increased the ongoing violence in Gbarpolu County. Members of the Joint Security forces that were present in the area failed to protect Madam Kanneh and her supporters and calm the situation in Gbarpolu County.
We strongly believe that these cultural and physical attacks on women in our electoral process is at odds with Liberia’s commitment to achieving women’s representation in politics.
We therefore remind the Liberian government of its obligation to protect all candidates especially women candidates to promote equal participation of women.
We also believe that NEC could have been more forceful in the execution and protection of the electoral process. We do not understand why there is a failure in this regard.
We want to remind the government and citizens that the attack on Madam Botoe Kanneh is not an isolated incident. During the August 2017 by-election, Telia Urey, who ran for the District 15 seat to replace the late Rep. Adolph Lawrence, was attacked, stones were thrown at her office and vehicle. Also, Cornelia Kruah-Togba, who was running for District 13 seat, was attacked along with her supporters. Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, who was campaigning with Kruah-Togba was also attacked. In the just ended senatorial election, there were reports of election-related violence in Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Nimba and Grand Bassa counties.
In all these incidents, there were no investigations, arrests, or prosecution. If Liberia’s democracy is to flourish, the government cannot continue to turn a blind eye to election-related violence. There must be consequences.
In recognition of the ongoing security situation in Gbarpolu, we held separate meetings with the Minister of Justice Cllr. F. Musa Dean and Minister of Internal Affairs Hon. Varney Sirleaf to voice our concerns.
Minister Dean assured us that arrests had been made of alleged perpetrators in Gbarpolu. During our meeting, he indicated that the perpetrators were being evacuated to Bopolu for further investigations.
He assured us of a full investigation and that the government will provide security for Botoe Kanneh and Madam Edith Gongloe-Weh in Nimba. In the meeting we reported the incident of threat and beating of the head of the women’s group and he started investigating immediately. Minister Sirleaf said he is aware of the abuse of the country devil. He said he and the council of traditional leaders are investigating and taken it seriously. He said those involved will be sanctioned. He said the chief of Normor has already been suspended.
Considering this situation, we are making the following recommendations:
- We request that President George Weah exhibits political will to protect women from all forms of violence including election-related violence. We urge him to provide adequate resources to the Ministry of Justice to enforce the law by investigating and prosecuting those who were involved in all election-related violence.
- We urge the Minister of Justice to investigate, arrest and prosecute all perpetrators of violence during the just-ended Special Senatorial Election. This investigation must include all those who abused our cultural traditions.
- The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Council of Traditional Leaders should immediately suspend all those traditional leaders accused of disrupting the elections process, arrest them and turn over for prosecution. If found guilty, they should be dismissed.
- Before the National Election Commission schedules the rerun in Gbarpolu it must conduct a complete investigation of the election-related violence and put mechanism in place to deter future disruption.
- The Armed Forces must be called on to support the security situation and protect voters.
- We request assistance from the United Nations, ECOWAS, and the U.S. Embassy to support monitoring and security in the area.
- The government must provide support and safe home for rape survivors and ensure that the perpetrators are prosecuted.
This statement was read by Cllr. Yvette Chesson-Wureh on behalf of the following organizations:
Angie Brooks International Center (ABIC)
YWCA
African Women Leaders Network (AWLN)
The Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia (AFELL)
Young Women in Leadership and Knowledge Institute
Team for One Liberia More
Forum of Liberia Women Elders
Collaborating Political Parties Women’s Movement
Coalition of Political Parties Women of Liberia
Movement for One Liberia
Liberian Women Can Lead