The Board of Commissioners of the National Elections Commission (NEC) has reaffirmed and confirmed its declarations of Edwin Melvin Snowe and Zoe Emmanuel Pennue as winners of the December 8, 2020 special senatorial elections in Bomi and Grand Gedeh counties respectively.
The Board of Commissioners’ decisions were read on Tuesday, 26 January 2021 by Commissioners Ernestine Morgan Awar and Floyd Oxley Sayer.
The ruling of the Board of Commissioners has grown out the case the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), through J. Alex Tyler, Bomi County, as Complainant verses the National Elections Commission (NEC), as first Appellee and Edwin Melvin Snowe, Bomi County, as second Appellee. The Grand Gedeh County case out of the action of appeal by the Liberia Restoration Party, through Thomas Yaya Nimely verses NEC, first appellee and CDC, Zoe Emmanuel Pennue second appellee, represented by Atty. Ade Wade Kerkuleh, and Cllr. Jimmy Bombo.
Lawyers representing J. Alex Tyler, led by Cllr. Amara Sheriff, and lawyers representing Edwin Snowe, led by Cllr. J. Leveli Supuwood, accepted the rulings and announced separate appeals to the Supreme Court of Liberia.
In the Bomi County ruling, read by Cllr. Morgan Awar, the Board backed its Hearing Officer, who ruled that harmless errors, mathematical errors, made were corrected and muted, and that honest mistakes by the Presiding Offer, described as transposing errors, could not be used to invalid the votes.
In the Grand Gedeh County ruling, read by Commissioner Floyd Oxley Sayer, the NEC Board observed the inconsistency of witnesses: voters were denied voting because of no face mask and that they were under age, that they saw six motorbikes carrying six ballot boxes, and that the superintendent used government vehicles to transport voters.
All seven Commissioners of the Board, including Chairperson Davidetta Browne Lansanah, Co-chairperson Cllr. P. Teplah Reeves, Commissioners Boakai A. Dukuly, Barsee Leo Kpankai, Cllr. Ernestine Morgan Awar, Floyd Oxley Sayor and Josephine Kou Gaye heard the case and signed the ruling.
Meanwhile, the Board of Commissioners has reserved rulings in the Lofa County electoral dispute case involving CPP Candidate J. Browne Samukai verses Ahmed Kromah and James Mally Complainants in one case and Keseley Gayflor, of Lofa verses J. Browne Samukai and NEC Co-Appellee. The BOC took the decision Tuesday, 26 January 2021 following final argument between lawyers representing James Mally and Ahmed Kromah, led by Cllr. Samuel Kortimai.