NEC accredits PYJ’s party Today

The National Elections Commission or NEC will today, Friday, May 6, 2016, accredit Senator Prince Y. Johnson’s political party as legally registered institution. The Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction and the Vision for Liberia Transformation will join 21 other registered political parties for the 2017 Presidential and Representatives elections.

This is the second time, Senator Johnson of Nimba County has established a political party – he first being the National Union for Democratic Progress or NUDP. He was later expelled from the part after the 2011 presidential election in which the party emerged third.

In February of 2012, the Executive Committee of the Liberian Opposition National Union for Democratic Progress or NUDP party announced it had expelled Senator Prince Y. Johnson as the political leader and member of the party, accusing him, among other things, of unilaterally declaring his support for President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in the runoff of the 2011 presidential election without the consent of the Executive Committee.

Gbawou Kowou, Chairman of the NUDP, said the party viewed some of Johnson’s actions as criminal. “When you summarize all of the things that the accuser had against Senator Johnson, they include, and [are] not limited to having an arrangement with another political party without the consent of the National Executive Committee, soliciting funds on behalf of the party without the consent of the NEC of the party, threatening the leadership of the party, terroristic threats, as well as embezzlement, among other things, that we thought would be criminal,” he said.

The accreditation of the two proposed political parties is consistent with Article 79 of the Constitution of Liberia and Chapter 2Sub-Chapters A and B of the Regulations and Guidelines Relating to Political Parties and Independent Candidates.

The certification ceremony will be held at the James M. Fromayan Conference Hall at the Headquarters of the NEC in Monrovia. The certification of the proposed political parties will bring to twenty-three the total number of registered political parties in the country.

By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor