The National Elections Commission (NEC) has said the July 31st By- elections in Bong and Montserrado Counties will still go ahead, despite a Petition for a writ of prohibition filed at the Supreme Court.
Last week, the Elections Coordinating Committee (ECC) filed a writ of prohibition to the Supreme Court against the NEC on ground that the scheduled elections were based on a joint resolution and unconstitutional.
There has been no word from the Supreme Court of Liberia on the writ of prohibition filed by the Election Coordinating Committee (ECC) thus far.
ECC filed the petition on Wednesday, July 18. The group argues that the June 26, 2018 joint resolution adopted by the Legislature and the Executive is unconstitutional.
The ascendency of President George Weah and Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor in the December 2017 elections created vacancies in the two Senatorial seats in the Legislature.
The elections should have been held three months (90 days) after the seats were declared vacant but the CDC government said it had no money at the time to fund the process.
Article 37 of the 1986 Liberian Constitution says:
“In the event of a vacancy in the Legislature caused by death, resignation, expulsion or otherwise, the presiding officer shall within 30 days notify the Elections Commission thereof. The Elections Commission shall not later than 90 days thereafter cause a by-election to be held; provided that where such vacancy occurs within 90 days prior to the holding of general elections, the filling of the vacancy shall await the holding of such general elections.”
So, the Legislature later passed a Joint Resolution giving the National Elections Commission (NEC) the July 31, 2018 date to conduct the polls in Bong and Montserrado.
But addressing a press conference in Monrovia on Monday, NEC’s Chairman, Cllr. Jerome Korkoya said the electoral process is on course and called on registered voters in the two counties to turn on Next week Tuesday to vote.
“All items including pre-packed kits and ballot papers procured outside the country have arrived and are stored under the security pending deployment at various voting precinct across the two counties,” the NEC Chairman said.
He announced that there are 667 voting precincts and 2,292 polling places in the two counties.
According to him, the Commission has completed the recruitment of staff in various capacities for the two Senatorial By-elections.
“Seventy Seven civic educators and gender mobilization were recruited, trained and deployed across the two counties,” he said; adding “ 25 are in Montserrado, while 42 are deployed in Bong County,” the head of the national electoral body said.
The NEC boss pointed out that these civic educators are mobilizing voters to turn out on July 31 and at the same time, putting up reading materials such as posters, banners and flyers across the counties.
The chairman added thatn78 data center staff were recruited to beef up the strength of data center personnel.
“NEC also recruited 148 electoral supervisors and 12,956 polling staff including presiding officers, voter identification officers, ballot paper issuers inkers , ballot paper issuer, ballot box comptroller, and queue controller.”
“Training for these staff will commence on later this week in the two counties,” the NEC Chairman told Journalists.
The educators and gender mobilizers for the senatorial by-elections are said to currently be undertaking door-to-door civic education activities and putting up reading materials such as posters, flyers and banners in the two regions.
In addition to the civic educators deployed in the field, Cllr. Korkoya explained, “NEC in collaboration with the International Foundation for Election System (IFES) produced jingles and dramas which are being aired on a number of radio stations in Bong and Montserrado Counties.”
“NEC also hired the services of the Liberia Media for Democratic Initiatives (LMDI) to assist with the dissemination of information on the by-elections.”
“The LMDI has also held town hall meetings and debates among the candidates in Bong and Montserrado Counties,” according to the NEC boss.
On the political activities, the NEC boss explained , the campaign, which began on July 02, 2018 is expected to end July 29, 2018 at 5.59pm.
Since declaring the campaign open, NEC has not receive any complaint of campaign violence; but he encouraged candidates to remain on this peaceful path during the remaining days of the campaign exercise.
On the issue of the security, Chairman Korkoya disclosed that the commission and the Liberia National Police have agreed that the police authority that they (police authority) will submit security budget to the government for consideration.
Due to the critical role of the LNP in these elections, NEC boss is therefore calling on the Ministries of Finance and Justice to ensure the presence of security at all polling centers during the by-election Tuesday, July 31, 2018.
Concluding, Chairman Korkoya thanked the government and international partners for their support for the senatorial by-election thus far and called on register voters in these two counties to turn out on Tuesday to vote in the by-elections. Report by Augustine Octavius