By our Reporter
The opposition Liberty Party (LP) of Charles Brumskine has made good its threat to legally challenge the legitimacy of results of the October 10, 2017 elections saying, “the election was rigged long before Election Day.”
The LP’s Complaint was submitted to the National Elections Commission (NEC) in Monrovia on Monday, citing a number of instances they say that point to fraud and gross irregularities warranting a rerun of the entire elections.
Brumskine said his party was taking advantage of provisions in the Liberian constitution and the new election law for aggrieved party(s) in an election to seek redress in case there are irregularities.
LP’s complaint was submitted some five days after the final results were announced by NEC, declaring BDC’s George Weah and UP’s Joseph Boakai as the two top candidates to contest the November 7 runoff election, two days earlier than the 7 days required by Article 83(c) of the Liberian Constitution.
“Any party or candidate who complains about the manner in which the elections were conducted or who challenges the results thereof shall have the right to file a complaint with the Elections Commission. Such complaint must be filed not later than seven days after the announcement of the results of the elections,” said Article 83 (c) of the constitution.
Brumskine told Journalists that “There have been massive fraud, gross irregularities, violation of the Constitution of Liberia, election laws and other laws of our country.”
“It is such a sad thing for us as Liberians, thousands and thousands of Liberians have been denied their constitutional rights to vote,” as the LP complaint cited several reasons why the outcome of the October 10 polls should be declared null and void.
Brumskine, who came third in the results issued by NEC with 9.6% of the votes, is protesting the late Opening of Polls, change of polling stations, omission of names from the Voter Registration Roll and NEC’s failure to use worksheet.
LP also provided 10 specific instances of alleged fraud that it said marred the just ended elections.
Quoting Articles 77(b) and 80(c) of the Constitution and Section 4.8, Brumskine and his Liberty Party complained of NEC’s failure to adhere to the Constitution.
And in many cases, it said the polls were opened late, and in some cases, as late as 3:00 pm instead of 8:00 am, to the detriment of the registered voters.
“They went to polling places, only to be told that that’s not where they should vote. They stood on lines for hours, only to realize that there were no queue controllers and that they were on the wrong lines,” the LP contended.
“We have evidence showing that people were required to vote in boxes other than the sealed ballot boxes. We have evidence of young men carrying ballot boxes on their heads after polling close, unaccompanied by police officers, unaccompanied by NEC officials,” LP said.
The national electoral body had earlier admitted that there were some irregularities and administrative and technical lapses, but said those discovered were later corrected.
NEC had excluded results from a couple of polling stations and conducted reelections at polling centers in three districts in Nimba and Grand Gedeh counties.