STAKEHOLDERS TO THE nation’s peace and democracy have become concerned about the government providing the financial resources for the proposed December 9, 2020 senatorial by-election. They are concerned that any delay in conducting the election could create a Constitutional crisis because the tenure of fifteen of the thirty senators would have expired, and the law requires that each county is represented by two senators.
THE ELECTION COORDINATING Committee is one of such stakeholders, and has noted, “The ECC recognizes that the legal basis for the postponement of elections in Liberia was established by the Supreme Court’s opinion in 2014 when it ruled that a joint resolution signed by the National Legislature and the President was lawful. That led to the suspension of the 2014 Special Senatorial elections from October to December 2014. At the same time, the ECC has observed that between 2018 and 2019 joint resolutions were used to conduct three by-elections, outside of Constitutional required timelines.”
THE ECC OBSERVED that “this is becoming a dangerous practice and has implications for the conduct of future elections, particularly when the country is anticipating holding general and presidential elections in 2023. The ECC warns that the practice of using joint resolutions to change Constitutional directives and mandates on when to conduct elections is undermining the country’s young and fragile democracy.”
STAKEHOLDERS ARE ADMONISHING the government that, in preparation for the conduct of the senatorial by-election in December the National Elections Commission (NEC) should begin cleaning up the voter roll, in keeping with the Supreme Court’s directive in its opinion of 2017. “Any plan to conduct the 2020 senatorial election without cleaning up the voter roll will be a recipe for political conflict, instability and to undermine the integrity of the results.
“AT THE SAME time, Article 77B of the Constitution mandates that all eligible voters who turned eighteen years of age in an election year should be registered to vote. The ECC calls on the NEC to inform the Liberian people, whether it has the time to conduct a voter roll update, in keeping with Section 3.1 of the New Elections Law if the government provides the needed funding.”
THE STAKEHOLDERS ARE urging the National Legislature to exert its oversight function to ensure that the government provides the needed resources to the NEC to implement activities because elections are time-bound, and a delay in the implementation of one activity undermines the timely completion of other activities.
“THE ECC FURTHER calls on the NEC to present a comprehensive plan to the National Legislature on how it intends to organize the election if and when it is pushed to December 9, 2020. Rushed activities in an election year may lead to unprofessionalism, and this could undermine citizens’ trust in the election process, which could threaten the democratic gains the country has made over the past twelve years.”