PHOTO: CPP Candidate Edith Gongloe Weh & Rep. Jeremiah Koung
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia- The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved ruling into the Nimba County Senatorial election dispute case involving the opposition CPP candidate Madam Edith Gongloe-Weh and incumbent Representative Jeremiah Koung in northeastern Liberia,
Lawyers representing Madam Gongloe-Weh are seeking the Court’s mandate to rerun the December 2020 polls in five electoral districts in Nimba, citing several irregularities, electoral fraud voters’ intimidation, among others.
In their argument, they spoke of unsealed ballot boxes being delivered to the local NEC office without security escort, and that Senator Prince Johnson who is a key supporter of Koung visited a polling place in military attire with armed escorts, thus scaring away voters and sparking a tension that resulted into one person sustaining injury.
Bar President leads opposition candidate’s legal team
Gongloe-Weh’s legal team is headed by her senior brother, Cllr. Tiawon Gongloe, who also heads the Liberia National Bar Association. Other members of the legal team are Cllrs. Francis Johnson Morris, Augustine Fayiah, Kuku Dorbor, Philip Gongloe and former Chief Justice Gloria Musu Scott.
Edith Gongloe Weh (center) leaving the court on Wednesday
They further argued that Temper Evidence Envelopes (TEEs), a carbon envelope used by Presiding Officers (POs) for record of count, PO’s work sheet and journal before the records are hand delivered to the electoral supervisor, were missing.
Cllr. Gongloe and team also referenced the Election Magistrate of Nimba, Nathan Paye, as vowing on record to cheat Gongloe-Weh. Though the accused admitted making the statement, he said it was provoked by a journalist who tacitly accused him of taking side.
It is on those counts that Gongloe-Weh’s legal team is praying the Supreme Court to order a rerun of the polls in Districts 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7 in the county, and to overturn a previous ruling by NEC affirming Koung as winner of the Special Senatorial Election in Nimba.
But in counter argument, renowned criminal lawyer Cllr. Arthur Johnson said all of the counts raised by Gongloe-Weh’s legal team are not based on facts, saying they simply dwelt largely on Senator Johnson taking armed men to a polling center instead of adducing evidence of electoral fraud and irregularities as claimed by them. Cllr. Johnson believes they have personal issues with the senator.
He also dismissed claims that poll workers delivered unsealed ballot boxes, adding, all boxes from the 468 polling places were sealed, according to records.
Cllr. Johnson also pointed out that all of the arguments of Gongloe-Weh’s legal team are not based on facts, but mere assumption, presumption and hearsay. “In order to prove fraud, there must be particularity and evidence. Fraud can’t be proven by deduction or induction”, he stressed.
He said further that Cllr. Gongloe is on record for saying he doesn’t have problem with the election result but with Senator Prince Johnson who fought the civil war.
Cllr. Johnson argued further that no voting ever took place in cartoons, a statement that was refuted by NEC’s lawyer Cllr. Wilkins Wright who admitted that at some point voting did indeed take place in cartoons due to late arrival of ballot boxes. But he clarified further that soon as the boxes arrived, ballot papers were transferred from the cartoons to the ballot boxes.
Cllr. Johnson therefore prayed the court to dismiss the entire appeal and bill of exception filed by Gongloe-Weh’s lawyers and to uphold NEC’s ruling affirming Jeremiah Koung as winner of Nimba’s 2020 Special Senatorial election.
Cllr. Wright also prayed court to affirm an earlier NEC ruling declaring Koung as winner of the poll.