19 Presidential Candidates Challenge Pres. Weah’s 2nd Term Bid
By Frank Sainworla, Jr. fsainworla@yahoo.com
The 20 presidential candidates and hundreds of legislative candidates in this Tuesday, October 10, 2023 elections in Liberia have until midnight tonight, Sunday, October 8 to end all campaigning activities, ahead of polls as required by the country’s elections law.
According to the law and regulation, this means campaign billboards, banners, radio campaign music, jingles and wearing of parties/candidates’ paraphernalia shall have become prohibited, it such will be considered campaigning.
Ahead of Tuesday’s polls, the National Elections Commission (NEC) has continued to assure the Liberian people and the world that the voting will be conducted in a credible and transparent manner. Announcements from NEC in recent days say that its deployment of voting materials and poll workers is well on course at the 2,080 voting precincts and 5,890 polling places across this West African nation.
In the last few days, NEC has been running SMS messages on the GSM mobile networks reminding 2.471, 617 registered voters that they will have to cast their ballots only at the places they registered.
“NEC says on Election Day, Tuesday, October 10, 2023, Vote in the First place you registered and do not forget to take your Voters ID cards along,” the SMS message says.
Through a Presidential Proclamation issued over the weekend, Tuesday, October 10, 2023 has been declared a national holiday—Elections Day to allow all eligible voters to exercise their franchise.
Chapter 4, Sections 4.1 and 2 of the New Elections Law of Liberia spells out the way elections should be conducted on voting day.
CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS
Section 4. I (2): Voting Precincts: which reads:
“The number of registered voters in every precincts shall be approximately equal, and unless the Commission in any particular case so determines, the number of registered voters in any precinct shall not exceed two thousand (2000). (2) The number of registered voters in every precinct shall be approximately equal, and unless the Commission in any particular case so determines, the number of registered voters in any precinct shall not exceed three thousand (3000).”
Incumbent President Weah in a tight race
Liberia has 46 registered political parties but less than half are fielding presidential candidate in this race. Political commentators and observers have described the 2023 presidential and legislative elections as tension-packed. Incumbent President George Manneh Weah of the ruling CDC party is facing 19 other presidential contenders including former Vice President Joseph Boakai who is candidate of the main opposition Unity Party (UP) which lost power to the CDC in the 2017 elections.
Among the nineteen presidential candidates trying to democratically replace the incumbent former international football icon-turned President, Weah, are two female politicians, Bendu Kromah, INDEPENDENT, and Sarah Beysolow Nyanti of the African Liberation League.
The 20 presidential candidates cleared by NEC
In their campaign trails across Liberia, all of the 20 candidates have told voters why they are the best to lead this post-war nation. Tuesday’s election will be the fourth successive democratic general elections since the country’s civil war officially ended in 2003.
In the first two, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won two successive terms and did not contest the previous 2017 poll abiding by the two-term limit required by the Liberian constitution.
Weah is making his second term bid and most of his rivals, especially UP’s Boakai and another opposition contender Alexander Cummings of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) have vowed to make the Liberian leader “a one-term President”.
Also, voters in the 15 Counties will be electing all 73 members of the House of Representatives and half of the country’s 30-member Senate. Their choices will be made from among a list of 1,010 legislative candidates qualified by NEC to contest this election.
Hundreds of international elections observers have arrived in the country from the Africa, the United States, Europe and other parts of the world, while hundreds of other local observers are being deployed across the country by the Elections Coordinating Committee (ECC), LEON and other elections watchdog groups.
International diplomats and other partners have repeated said that the “eyes of the world are on Liberia” to ensure a peaceful, transparent, credible and inclusive election that is violence free.
Ahead of Tuesday’s polls, the Chargé d’Affaires in Monrovia, Catherine Rodriguez released a special message to Liberians telling them, “exercise your right to vote freely and peacefully”.
Catherine Rodriguez
The American diplomat then asserted: “The United States, as a long-standing partner of Liberia, takes these elections seriously. We are committed to helping make them free, fair, and peaceful.”
NEC educates citizens on “Anti-fraud mechanism”
Meanwhile, in the run up to Tuesday’s voting, NEC has been educating the public about the safety features of the biometric voter registration card that will for the first time be used in elections in Liberia.
