By Kaipee Luther Newray
Tuesday, November 7, 2017 was the day the National Elections Commission had set aside for the runoff between former football star, Senator George Weah of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and President Sirleaf’s Vice President, Joseph Boakai, of the ruling Unity Party (UP).
But that this timeline is not to be.
Boakai’s UP last week launched a strong attack on Sirleaf linking her to alleged vote rigging and irregularities in the October 10 polls and issuing a vote of no confidence in her credibility and that of NEC to manage the electoral transition in an even handed manner.
In fact, UP and Benonai Urey’s All Liberian Party (ALP) in a joint statement announced their backing for the Liberty Party’s legal challenge against the first round election results.
Since 1944, Liberia has never seen a peaceful transfer of power from one democratically elected president to another elected president. And if the ongoing electoral confusion can be resolved in time, Article 50 of the Liberian constitution requires that it takes place in January.
(Article 50) “The Executive Power of the Republic shall be vested in the President who shall be Head of State, Head of Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Liberia. The president shall be elected by universal adult suffrage of registered voters in the Republic and shall hold office for a term of six years commencing at noon on the third working Monday in January of the year immediately following the elections. No person shall serve as President for more than two terms,” the constitution says.
However, the highest court in the country earlier this year announced that it was not taking its annual year-end break, in order to exclusively devote this time to handle matters arising from the 2017 elections.
Before the first Supreme Court Alternative writ of prohibition on the November 7 runoff, NEC had already set the stage with the distribution of election materials, deployment of election magistrates and poll workers across the West African State.
But it has now become clear that that runoff will not be held on the scheduled date with a Supreme Court’s stay order on the process to adjudge a writ of prohibition filed to the high Court by opposition politician and astute lawyer, Cllr. Charles Brumskine, who has said the October 10 polls were marred by fraud, irregularities and illegalities.
Nine days to the now aborted November 7 run-off election, the ballot papers arrived in the Country.
“The presidential ballot papers arrived from Slovenia on Saturday October 28, 2017 at the Roberts International Airport at 4pm.The ballots were later conveyed to a saved location under heavy security escort by officers of the Liberia National Police,” a NEC press release said recently.
Cllr. Brumskine and his Liberty Party are praying the Supreme Court to annul results of the October 10 polls in which the party won 9.6 % of the votes.
Ahead of the Supreme Court’s hearing last week, the main opposition CDC of soccer legend Weah, who won 38.4% warned the Court that it will resist with sweat and blood any ruling that will be favor of the annulment of results of the first round of voting.
Twenty candidates contested the Liberian presidency to succeed Nobel Laureate, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Country and Africa’s first elected woman President whose second and final six-year-term expires in early 2018.
Meanwhile, speculations have heightened about the formation of an interim government if the Supreme Court’s ruling favors a rerun of the entire electoral process.
But some political parties and candidates in the first round of elections have dismiss any speculation of an interim government and are calling for the ongoing electoral dispute “to be handled carefully.”