G.C. U-turns on Code of Conduct

Following serious public condemnation here against recent call by the Chairperson of the Governance Commission (GC) Dr. Amos C. Sawyer, seeking suspension of Part V, Sections 5.1 and 5.2 respectively of the Code of Conduct for public officials, the Commission has swiftly assured Liberians that it will not, and has no intention of undermining the current electoral process, as is being widely speculated, and reported in the media.

Cllr. BornorVarmah of the Governance Commission says recent reports and accusation in the public domain that the GC is lobbying with the Supreme Court of Liberia and the National Elections commission to declare provisions of the Code of Conduct inapplicable in the 2017 election is completely false, and misleading.

Cllr. Varmah made the clarification here on Thursday, May 4, at the Ministry of Information on Capitol Hill in a press briefing, stressing that the mandate of the Commission is to lead the governing process of the country.

He says the G.C. has a mandate to proffer recommendations to government and develop implementation strategies as well as develop annual governing reports on critical sectors of the country.

He discloses that the Commission has developed its annual report, proffering several recommendations on various issues relative to the management of the electoral system, and the role of the Supreme Court in handling electoral matters, as well as the role of NEC in assessing the capacity of electoral matters, and the role of civil society, among others.

“In February, we released the 2016 annual governance report, one of the recommendations that the G.C. has proffered is to declare the provision that has to do with political participation inapplicable in the face of doubts and uncertainty that surrounds the process. if you can recall that quite recently, the Superintendent of Bong County filed a petition to the Supreme Court for a declaratory judgment, upon that when we released our report, knowing that this country is now moving in the brain area of the electoral process, and the absence of the divine position of the Supreme Court on this critical matter the commission said we should declare the provision inapplicable because of the doubt and uncertainty surrounding this case, that’s what happened in February”, Cllr. Varmah narrates.

By Lewis S. Teh-Editing by Jonathan Browne