LCC, consults stakeholders on By-elections

The Liberia Council of Churches (LCC) Tuesday May 22, 2018 led a consultation with key stakeholders on the pending by-elections of Montserrado and Bong Counties.

The consultation, which sought to find a way forward to the current impasse on the by-elections, brought together the host LCC, political parties and the National Elections Commission (NEC) at the LCC Headquarters in sinkor.

The NEC Chairman, Cllr. Jerome Korkoya, updated members of the LCC, led by its president Bishop Kortu Brown, and representatives of major registered political parties in Liberia on the status of the two senatorial by-elections. He cited financial reasons for the failure of the Commission to conduct the elections in the specified constitutional timeframe of 90 days.

Chairman Korkoya informed the LCC and Political Party’s Representatives that the May 8, 2018 election date, set by the Commission for the Senatorial By-Elections, was within the ninety day constitutional period, which has since elapsed and that the Commission has no constitutional authority to set a new election date for the two by-elections.

However, the NEC Boss said the government, through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, since last week, has committed itself to providing one million dollars but that the Commission had not received the money up to present.

Chairman Korkoya said that as soon as the Commission receives the money, it would seek the necessary consultation as to who is responsible to set a new election date.

For their part, representatives of political parties at the consultation resolved to take a definite position on the way forward to conduct the two Senatorial By-Elections on Friday at a one-day Inter Party Consultative Committee (IPCC) meeting in Monrovia.

Some said the government has deliberately violated the Liberian Constitution by not supporting the conduct of the two By-Elections on May 8, 2018, the Election date set by the NEC.

Other political party’s representatives suggested that the parties consider lawsuit against the CDC led Government for failing to conduct the by-elections. Political Parties attending included the Unity Party, Liberty Party, Union of Liberian Democrats, Democratic Justice Party, All Liberia Party, and the Alternative National Congress.