PHOTO CREDIT, SEWODA
Report by Garmah Never Lomo from Fish Town, Liberia
The Chairperson of the Region 5 Chapter of the National Civil Society Council, Helena Torh-Turo, called out the divisive pattern that allegedly characterized voting during the recent Special December 8 Senatorial Election (SSE) in River Gee County over 517 kilometers from Monrovia.
“Sectionalism” was the word she used to describe the way the electorate cast their ballots.
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, sectionalism is a tendency to be more concerned with the interests of your particular group or region than with the problems and interests of the larger group, such as a country, etc.
Mrs. Torh-Turo, who is also National Coordinator of the Southeastern Women Development Association (SEWODA), stated that voters in Gbaweken confessed to her that they had been instructed to vote for former senator Matthew Jaye, an independent. However, Jaye lost.
Torh-Turo spoke with the media in Gbaweken, following the official NEC vote count and elections results.
According to official election results released by NEC for River Gee County, former football star Jonathan Boycharles Sogbie of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) won the senatorial election with 4,972 votes representing 33.6% of total votes, followed by Charles Korkor Bardyl of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) with 4,598 votes representing 31.1% of the votes and Francis Saywon Younge with 2,385 votes representing 16.1%.
There were 901 invalid ballots in River Gee.
The December 8 elections and the results demonstrate that the mentality of the people is positively transforming, she said, and emphasized that the active involvement to shut down messages inciting to violence and promoting messages of peace have shown results.
“Citizens of River Gee County were never carried away by cash as it has been in the past,” Torh-Turo pointed out as the long-time senator was beaten by the CPP candidate.
The disappointing take-away, however, was the low participation of women in the voting process, she said, despite meetings held to encourage women to come out and vote.
River Gee, Maryland, Grand Gedeh, Sinoe and Grand Kru counties have vowed to come in full force during the 2023 presidential and general elections and make their voices heard.
Helena Torh-Turo took note of the low education and awareness on the referendum process among voters in River Gee, and said the big mistake was that the awareness was not done in the local people’s dialect so that everyone understands.
“Sufficient awareness should have first been done in the people’s local dialect ahead of the election given that the area is a rural community,” she noted.
Voting in River Gee was civil, but health protocols disregarded
Sophic S. Kenta, voter in River Gee, said that she really admired the manner in which the election was conducted and that there was absolutely no violent incident where she voted in Fishtown. Kenta regretted that while some voters wear masks, there were no hand washing and social distancing to prevent the spread of the deadly COVID-19 disease.
According to Kenta, pregnant women, nursing mothers, the visually impaired and people living with disabilities received preference to cut in front of the long lines.
“I am encouraging women to always contest in various elections across the country if even they will be defeated,” Kenta said, who would have loved to vote for a woman candidate. She believes that doing so would lead them to push the agenda of women at the level of the Legislature.
Bush meat seller from Sinoe County also spoke about peaceful, orderly election in District 2, where she voted. Angeline Saydee said that she voted for the county’s only female candidate who lost out, attributing that to the failure of fellow female candidates to vote the lone woman in the race.
“We have always voted male candidates in Sinoe County, but we are actually feeling the pinch because in District 2, we have to walk almost two hours to a nearby town to access mobile signal to call. More besides, the lack of roads is increasing hardship,” Saydee lamented.
On the referendum, Saydee admitted “I never voted for referendum because I don’t know anything on it.”
Of the 20 female candidates that competed nationwide for seats in the December 8, 2020 Special Senatorial Election, only Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence of Grand Bassa County has so far emerged as a clear winner among fellow females.