By Othello B. Garblah
It appears like authorities at the National Elections Commission (NEC) were caught pants down on Wednesday, February 7, when they secretly certificated Representative Thomas Goshua of Grand Bassa County District #5, amidst a pending electoral dispute.
It all happened on Wednesday afternoon, after Rep. Goshua’s challenger, Mrs. Juah C. Dennis filed a new complaint before the NEC Board of Commissioners detailing irregularities from the January 24, 2024, special recount as ordered by the Supreme Court on January 17.
Mrs. Dennis and her team of lawyers initially took the complaint to the legal office at NEC but were advised to drop it at the commission’s reception where it had to be registered and signed before delivery at the legal office.
Mrs. Dennis and her team of lawyers complied, hoping to hear from NEC’s legal department to go through her complaint. An hour later, Mrs. Dennis’s phone rang. It was a call from NEC’s office, beaming with a smile she okayed the call. But it was not the conversation she expected. She was told to return and collect her complaint folder, while Goshua was being certificated somewhere in NEC’s compound.
Sources at the NEC said most of the commissioners were not even briefed about the existence of the new complaint that was now before its legal office when the certification was taking place an hour later.
Upon hearing the message, Candidate Dennis and her team of lawyers declined to return to pick up their complaint. “What has been filed has been filed,” they said, while on the other side, NEC proceeded with its secret certification of Goshua.
Meanwhile, as if that was not enough, Goshua’s certification by NEC officials also comes amidst a pending writ of Mandamus which is expected to be issued today by the Supreme Court.
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The case involved an electoral dispute between Representative Candidate Juah C. Dennis and Rep. Goshua falling out of the October 10, 2023, representative election results from District #5 Grand Bassa County, where candidate Dennis emerged as the second runner up, a result she has since challenged.
On January 17, the Supreme Court ordered that NEC conduct a recount of results from the 78 polling centers within the disputed district, but they did only 70, leaving out 10.
Moreover, not only did NEC intentionally leave out 10 of the boxes, but the representative ballot papers which were placed in the representative ballot boxes containing Green colored ballot box stickers surfaced for the recount in ballot boxes with red ballot stickers. The Red Ballot box stickers were for the Presidential Ballot papers box used on October 10. Thus, resulting in shortages of some of the ballot papers.
On the 26 of January immediately after the recount, candidate Dennis filed a Bill of Information before the NEC BoC and subsequently amended same on February 1. But NEC BoC declined to entertain the Bill of Information on grounds that they lack jurisdiction. Not being satisfied, she announced an Appeal to the BoC decision, but later withdrew same and filed a Bill of Information before the Supreme Court Justice in Chambers Associate Justice Jamesetta Wolokollie. The Full Bench of the Supreme Court declined to issue a writ against NEC. This prompted the complainant to file the writ of Mandamus.
In her complaint filed before NEC, candidate Dennis among other things argued that NEC did not successfully implement the Supreme Court’s mandate as it was mandated to do. She also argued that the recount team refused to reconcile the closing seal numbers of the October 10, 2023, ballot boxes to that of the opening seal on January 23, 2024. Most of the seals came broken from the boxes.
The returning of the Representative boxes not just with broken seals but appearing in boxes with presidential stickers violated the New Election Laws Chapter 4.12 para. (d) & (e), which states: “Place all ballot papers cast at the election in the ballot box and close and seal the ballot box and forward it to the Commission.”
Candidate Dennis also revealed how NEC Magistrate Daivd Logan and staff moved into the NEC Magistrate’s office and stayed there four nights from the 18th to the 22nd of January before the recount.
Despite some of the ballot papers in the boxes decreasing and increasing as compared to what was reconciled and sealed on October 10, 2023, the total number of ballot papers increased by 20.
When this paper called NEC Executive Director for comment he referred this writer to one Teage. several calls and text messages place to Teage were unanswered.
It remains to be seen how NEC will handle this case as the candidates await the outcome of the petition for writ of mandamus against NEC following the induction of Rep. Goshau into office on Thursday, February 8, by the House of Representatives.
