Editorial: Choosing the Law and Not Violence Again, CDC

The Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) seems to be in the pages of the newspapers and radio airwaves again for, perhaps, all of the wrong political reasons. The CDC may just be sending the wrong signals to thousands of its members and supporters through its recent fluctuating political statements regarding the alleged decision by the National Elections Commission or NEC to stop it from participating in the July 3, 2012 By-Election for Montserrado County District Number 11.

Two separate statements from party executives seem to be confusing- Mulbah Morlu’s Demonstration threat and Acarous Gray’s legal action against the NEC, as well as his call for a peaceful demonstration by CDCians. Morlu, at a news conference on Wednesday, May 23, warned that the CDC would stage street protests in Monrovia if the Commission did not rescind its alleged decision, while Gray, on the same day, threatened legal actions for the same reason and as well threatened a peaceful demonstration in Monrovia.

But the National Elections Commission appears to be very focused in ensuring that the By-Electoral process continues despite the so-called threats being issued by a few executives of the CDC. The Commission has made it emphatically clear that it did not take any decision to stop the Congress for Democratic Change from participating in the process as it is being propagandized by the party officials.

The reality and truth of the matter are that the CDC did not register, nether did it submit or return any registration document having earlier received the form from the NEC before the expiration date for registration of all candidates on Friday, May  18, 2012 at 5:O’clock p.m.

Infect, a revelation by a CDC insider that on the expiration date for the registration of candidates his party’s Secretary General Acarous Gray was at a local bank at about 3:30pm attempting to process the party’s registration, while at the same time requesting from the NEC its bank accounts, is something very worrisome and puzzling.

However, whether or not the National Elections Commission took a decision against the CDC’s participation in the July 3, 2012 Montserrado By-Election, the issue of violence must be kept out of our country’s democratic process. While Mr. Acarous Gray and the CDC may be aggrieved as a result of whatever may have happened in the ongoing By-Election, the most civilized option is the court system as Acarous himself may have suggested.

For the public to understand the truth of the matter between the CDC and NEC, it is only the intervention of the court system and not the street protests or demonstrations suggested by the party executives. Other than giving inflicted impressions about its problem with NEC, the CDC must be urged to pursue legal means to seek redress. A few executives of the party must not continue to portray the CDC as a violent political institution in the eyes of the Liberian people.

These executives must now be cognizant of the fact that since it began participating in the Liberian electoral processes in 2005, violence has never solve any political problem of the Congress for Democratic Change. It is an open fact the lack of political education and maturity among a few CDC executives continue to propel the violent posture being perceived of the CDC by many well-meaning Liberians.

And these CDC executives are made to understand that unless there is tremendous political education, maturity and transformation in the party, state power will continue to remain far away from the CDC.