The governing Coalition for Democratic Change launches a stinking attack against the former ruling Unity Party, for suspending eight senators from the party on voting to remove former Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh from the Supreme Court.
Speaking in a news conference at the Coalition headquarters in Congo Town Thursday, April 04 national chairman MulbahMorlu roars the decision by the opposition party is undemocratic and it undermines Article 42 of the Constitution of Liberia, which states no lawmaker should be held liable or be punished for action taken in plenary.
Article 42: No member of the Senate or House of Representatives shall be arrested, detained, prosecuted or tried as a result of opinions expressed or votes cast in the exercise of the functions of his office. Members shall be privileged from arrest while attending, going to or returning from sessions of the Legislature, except for treason, felony or breach of the peace. All official acts done or performed and all statements made in the Chambers of the Legislature shall be privileged, and no Legislator shall be held accountable or punished therefore.
Morlu notes the decision of ‘few stalwarts of the Unity Party to suspend sitting senators for doing their legislative work speaks to the high level of anger and hate being created among some partisans of the UP against the Coalition-led government.
He points out that suspension of the eight senators reduces the numerical strength and popularity of the UP in those counties the senators represent, and for a Unity Party that is barely struggling to survive the political wave of the CDC ahead of the 2020 Special Senatorial election.
“To suspend these strong legislators for their action taken in plenary is undemocratic, unconstitutional and it violates the high moral of good governance in the party. They are behaving like beheaded chicken, jumping from point to another. The suspension tells me some Unity Party partisans acting like a group of boys who, wanting to be heard or seen that they are doing something but in actual sense, they are doing nothing. The decision is harmful to them politically”, he says.
At the same time, he calls on the suspended senators to make their way to the CDC where they will be welcomed and treated with respect and dignity, saying, “Some of those senators were part of us and we are calling on them to come home where they will be respected and cherished for their role play in moving the country forward.”
Morlu continues that the Unity Party should rescind its decision in order to make the opposition community stronger for the 2020 senatorial election. Liberia is expected to hold Special Senatorial election where 15 of the 30 senators will seek reelection.
He stresses that the former ruling party is not mature politically in dealing with such situation, noting that many of the senators suspended by the UP got elected on their own popularity and not on basis of the Unity Party’s numerical strength. “It makes no sense to kick those who are helping to [make you] strong out for personal grief.”
By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor –Editing by Jonathan Browne
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