UP issues threat against NEC, if…

By Lincoln G. Peters 

Former ruling Unity Party (UP) has warned that the National Elections Commission (NEC) will meet stiff political opposition and sustained legal action if it makes any attempt to deny the party the opportunity and right to field a candidate in the Lofa County senatorial by-election.

UP Chairman Mr. Amin Modad told a press conference in Monrovia Tuesday, 12 April 2022 that the party was robbed of its senatorial victory in Lofa following the 2020 senatorial election across the country, adding that citizens of Lofa were subjugated and denied their suffrage.

“However, the UP will no longer sit supinely and allow the rights of the people it represents to be trampled upon by a system marred by duplicity,  intolerance, and a clear intent to embroil the democratic process in chaos,” Mr. Modad said at the party headquarters on Broad Street.

Chairman Modad described the entire Lofa County by-election legal process at the National Elections Commission as a very clear and scandalous attempt to target and eliminate the Unity Party and its standard bearer, Amb. Joseph N. Boakai from the 2023 presidential and legislative elections.

Mr. Modad accused the NEC of wanting to hold the UP by a clause in the controversial Collaborating Political Party (CPP) Framework Document submitted to the commission by Liberty Party embattled Chair Musa Bility and Alternative National Congress (ANC), even though Unity Party is not a signatory to the document.

“So the litmus test to this grand scheme of exclusion of the UP in the 2023 Presidential Elections is the Lofa County senatorial by-election,” said Mr. Modad. 

“Intriguingly, violating its own guidelines and timeline, the National Elections Commission has deliberately refused to publish the provisional list of registered candidates which should have been done on April 4, 2022,” chairman Modad lamented. 

He said that the Unity Party wants to make it very explicit and pray that this claims the urgent attention of the Government of Liberia as well as the International Community, specifically the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), European (EU) and the United States Government (US).

Mr. Modad reassured UP partisans and sympathizers that no matter how deep and well planned this grand conspiracy to exclude the UP from the by-election in Lofa and subsequent elections is, the Unity Party will do everything within the ambit of the law to ensure that its candidate partakes in every election in this country.

Chairman Modad further indicated that the UP will field candidates in the Lofa by-election and the 2023 Presidential Elections under the banner of the Unity Party, adding that the party represents the aspirations and political will of hundreds of thousands of Liberians.

The Unity Party entered into a collaboration in 2020 with three other political parties, All Liberian Party (ALP), Alternative National Congress (ANC) and Liberty Party (LP), forming the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP).

Mr. Modad explained that in line with Section 8.5 of the New Elections Law of Liberia, the National Executive Committee of the Unity Party, by absolute majority of its membership, did sign and file with the National Elections Commission a resolution to form an alliance with the ALP, ANC and LP.

But he said on 24 March 2022, Mr. Musa Hassan Bility, Chairman of the Liberty Party and Martin Saye Kollah, Secretary General of LP and the Alternative National Congress (ANC), after removing the UP and ALP from all forums and chat groups wrote a letter (not a complaint) to the Elections Commission seeking clarity and advice on the status of the UP and the ALP within the CPP.

He said Mr. Bility and Mr. Kollah asked the NEC not to allow the UP and the ALP to register candidates in their own names for the Lofa by-election.

Chairman Modad noted that in keeping with the rules and guidelines set forth by the National Elections Commission (NEC), the Unity Party submitted a NOTARIZED RESOLUTION signed by more than 2/3rd majority of its Executive Committee to the NEC informing it about the party’s withdrawal from the CPP.

He said the UP prudently followed all due processes and subsequently informed all parties in the collaboration of its withdrawal.  

According to Mr. Modad, on 25 March 2022, Unity Party received a notice of assignment to appear for hearing due on 28 March 2022 before Hearing Officer Atty. Fomba Swaray of the National Elections Commission.

At the hearing, UP lawyers argued that the case was manufactured by the NEC out of a simple letter written by Musa Bility and ANC therefore, the case should be thrown out on two major counts.

Stating the counts, Mr. Modad said the Elections Commission is an administrative body and hence cannot declare rights as was being requested by those who wrote the letter. 

Lastly, he said the elections commission is not an advisory board and hence is not in the position to render advice to any political party.

After listening to the argument, the NEC Hearing Officer ruled and insisted that the commission would hear the case, something the UP termed as massively baffling.

The party argued that the two paramount reasons for which the letter was written were ruled against and that what other case the hearing officer wants to hear again remains a misery. https://thenewdawnliberia.com/cpps-framework-doc-to-hook-boakai-others/