Liberians resist Fulani candidate

Some potential Liberian voters are resisting the representative candidacy of Bella Diallo in Montserrado County District #8, requesting the National Elections Commission (NEC) to deny the independent candidate over claims that he is not a Liberian.

Residents of Montserrado District #8 made a call for Mr. Diallo’s denial on 3 September through their spokesman Mr. Mark Kesselly during a political campaign held in Sinkor, out-side Monrovia.

Dozens of residents standing in opposition to the candidacy of Mr. Diallo, hail from 15 of the district’s 21 communities, questions the independent candidate’s nationality. Addressing the residents, Mr. Kesselly alleged that Mr. Bella Diallo is a Fulani hailing from neighboring Guinea. According to Mr. Kesselly, candidate Diallo should be denied by the NEC because Liberia’s Constitution only allows Liberians to contest in elections for public offices.

He claims that candidate Diallo voted in the Guinean election at the Guinean Embassy in Monrovia on 11 October 2016, while also recounting that the embattled candidate also led a Guinean delegation to meet visiting Guinean President Alpha Conde in Liberia.

The group spokesman Kessley wonders how Mr. Diallo became a Liberian citizen when both of his parents are not Liberians, claiming that his qualification is in violation of the Constitu-tion that prohibits foreigners from meddling into the country’s politics.

The anti – Diallo electorate further narrated that Mr. Diallo’s Fulani parents are from Guinea who came to Liberia as business people. They accused Mr. Diallo of allegedly trucking over 5,000 Fulanis from Guinea and got them obtain voters’ cards from the NEC. But when contacted, a member of Mr. Bella Diallo’s campaign team Mr. Conte Barre told the NewDawn on Monday, 4 September that the allegation is misleading.

Mr. Barre told this paper at his campaign office on the Bye-pass that candidate Diallo is a Liberian, urging his candidate’s detractors to take their grievances to the Supreme Court of Liberia to prove their case.He says at no time did Mr. Diallo ever truck people to register during the VR process.

By Emmanuel Mondaye–Edited by Winston W. Parley