Liberia re-run election
Liberia’s presidential run-off election holds on Tuesday next week, November 7. The race is between ex-football star George Weah of the Coalition for Democratic Change [CDC] and incumbent Vice President Joseph Boakai of the ruling Unity Party, UP. Ballot papers for the re-run election, imported from Slovenia, have already arrived in Monrovia, the capital. Weah […]
Liberia’s presidential run-off election holds on Tuesday next week, November 7. The race is between ex-football star George Weah of the Coalition for Democratic Change [CDC] and incumbent Vice President Joseph Boakai of the ruling Unity Party, UP. Ballot papers for the re-run election, imported from Slovenia, have already arrived in Monrovia, the capital. Weah and Boakai secured the highest number of votes in the first round of the elections on Oct. 10 among 20 candidates. While Weah secured 596,037 votes or 38.4 per cent, Boakai polled 446,716 votes or 28.8 per cent of the 1,641,922 votes cast. The other 18 candidates got less than 10 per cent of the votes each.
This is the third time since the country’s civil war ended in 2003 that Liberians face a choice between the same two parties. In both the 2005 and 2011 elections, the UP’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf emerged victorious in the run-off. In her last State of the Nation address, outgoing President and Nobel Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is stepping down after serving out her tenure, said her government had failed to reconcile the Liberian people and had fallen short in the war on corruption. At the same time, the economy has faltered badly. Inflation has soared, cost of living has increased and the economy has gone into recession.
Next week’s run-off election will fulfil the legal requirement of 50 plus one per cent if a particular candidate is to be declared winner. This year’s election is meant to usher in Liberia’s first democratic transition of power since 1944 but has been allegedly characterised by systematic irregularities and fraud, according to UP which said it would back a legal challenge to the results. The full bench of the Liberian Supreme Court is expected to deliberate on the Liberty Party’s complaint filed last week and has slapped the National Elections Commission [NEC] and members of the Board of Commissions with a Stay Order “on any and all activities” pertaining to the run-off election, pending final decision. NEC is expected to file a response no later than today, November 2. NEC also needs to start doing its job by enforcing its own regulations.
In a ‘Writ of Prohibition’ to the Supreme Court, LP said since it filed its complaint against alleged malpractices, NEC has deliberately refused to look into the matter but was instead concerned with preparation for the November 7 run-off, which they believe runs contrary to the constitution and election laws. Article 83 (c) of the 1986 Liberian Constitution provides that “The returns of the elections shall be declared by the Elections Commission not later than fifteen days after the casting of ballots. 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.”
No doubt the election rerun is a referendum on President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s leadership after 12 years in power that saw the country consolidate a post-war peace and also drew sharp criticism over alleged corruption and underdevelopment. The current situation has unnerved voters and other political parties and it will not augur well for West Africa if Liberia descends into chaos as those intent in disrupting the fragile peace of Liberia may want.
As voters face a difficult decision come November 7, many Liberians are looking to not only unseat the incumbent party but at the prospects of stable and sound leadership. Therefore the key task for the candidates is to make their promises credible and demonstrate their competence to deliver on those promises. We look forward to a successful re-run election in Liberia and to a peaceful, democratic transition of power in the country for the first time in more than 70 years.