By Emmanuel wise Jipoh
The opposition Unity Party (UP) of Amb. Joseph Nyumah Boakai says it is confident of winning the presidency after Tuesday’s polls.
Mr. Boakai is the main rival to incumbent President George Manneh Weah of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
20 presidential candidates took part in presidential and legislative elections conducted across the country on Tuesday, 10 October 2023.
The NEC began announcing preliminary results Wednesday and continued Thursday in which Mr. Boakai maintains an early lead.
The NEC has not declared any winner as more results are to be released in the coming days. The electoral house qualified over 2.4 million Liberians to vote.
UP Chairman Rev. J. Luther Tarpeh addressed a news conference on Thursday, 12 October 2023, expressing confidence about his party’s victory following the polls.
“To our supporters, Liberians home and abroad can rest assured we are going to win this election, and we are confident of victory,” said Rev. Tarpeh.
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Meanwhile, the UP has come under criticism for its utterances, with others calling on the opposition party to await for the NEC to declare the final results of the polls.
On Thursday, 12 October, the Eminent Women of the Women’s Situation Room (WSR) condemned the utterance by the opposition party, announcing itself as the winner of the presidential and legislative elections.
Through a press release issued Thursday, 12 October 2023, WSR said it was concerned that the NEC had announced only 0.27% of the actual votes cast (16 of 5,890 polling places) when UP said it had won the election.
The organization noted that the 0.27% announced by the NEC could not determine the winner of the presidential and legislative elections.
The Women’s Situation Room (WSR) is concerned about the utterances coming from the Unity Party (UP) press conference held Thursday, October 12, 2023, at their campaign headquarters, Gbangay Town, Airfield, Monrovia,” the release said.
It observed that during the press conference, the UP told its partisans to go and celebrate because its tally sheets had shown that they had won a one-round victory.
“Therefore, to tell their partisans to go out and celebrate is premature and inconsistent with the Farmington Declaration,” said WSR.
It further warned that UP’s action will be seen as a provocation to other political parties who are contending and will bring their constituents into the streets to cause confusion and violence.
“The Women’s Situation Room is against any type of violence and calls on all political parties including the exuberant Unity Party to … cease from coming out on the streets with any kind of celebration and to wait until NEC can announce the final results.”
