The Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, Judge J. Boima Kontoe, sitting in Gbarnga, Bong County, has cancelled the results of the 2022 controversial election of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL). In a motion for summary judgment, Judge Kontoe ordered an entire rerun of the PUL 2022 election on or before October 18, 2024.
Judge Kontoe ruled that he was ordering the rerun because the PUL 2022 election was conducted in violation of the Union’s Constitution and the PUL Election Campaign Guidelines.
In the ruling, Judge Kontoe mandated the constitution of an interim committee of seven former presidents of the PUL and four media elders to take over the leadership of the PUL.
The committee of eleven is tasked to conduct a fresh, free and fair election, and to clean the voter roll of the PUL, consistent with Article 10 Section 7 of the union’s constitution.
The motion for summary judgment was filed on February 26, 2024 by lawyers representing the national campaign management team of Julius Kanubah for the PUL presidency.
The motion sought the judge to rule on the original petition for declaratory judgment filed on November 18, 2022 by Team Kanubah, in relation to violations of the PUL constitution.
The petition for declaratory judgment bordered on violations of the PUL constitution regarding the failure of the PUL former leadership of Charles Coffey to produce a credible membership registry.
Team Kanubah complained that, rather than producing a membership registry, Coffey along with the Committees on Membership, Congress, and the sub-Committee on Elections and Inauguration published what they called “voter roll”.
According to Team Kanubah, the voter roll produced by Coffey and his allies was flooded with non-journalists and ineligible members, amounting to membership registration fraud, designed and orchestrated to steal the leadership election of the PUL.
“Besides, Coffey and his allies went ahead to stage a midnight elections of the PUL, from 7:30 p.m. on Saturday (November 19, 2022) to 3:40 a.m. on Sunday (November 20, 2022), violating the PUL election campaign guidelines,” Team Kanubah observed.
Meanwhile, Judge Kontoe has fined the Charles Coffey–Daniel Nyakonah–Musa Kenneh–Akoi Baysah former leadership of the PUL along with the relevant Committee Members and their lawyer US$300 each for reckless attitude and disrespect to the court by refusing to attend trial, despite being served several court notices.
They were ordered to remit the fine into government coffers within 72 hours, failure upon which would lead to their arrest and detention at the Gbarnga Central Prison.
In the wake of the ruling, Team Kanubah says it will hold a special press conference on Thursday, June 20, 2024, during the afternoon hours.