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UP warns of political uncertainties 

Petitions US Embassy, other foreign missions

By Bridgett Milton

The chairman of the opposition Unity Party (UP) Mr. Amin Modada has warned of the resultant political convulsions and political uncertainties which can prove injurious to Liberia’s peace and security if the National Elections Commission (NEC) is not stopped from implementing its “reckless and mischievous ploy” to prohibit his party from fielding candidates in the coming elections.

“If NEC is not quickly stopped from implementing its reckless and mischievous ploy, we are afraid of the resultant political convulsions and political uncertainties which can prove injurious to Liberia’s peace and security,” Mr. Modad said Wednesday, 27 April 2022 in a petition to foreign missions here.

The UP took to the streets of Monrovia Wednesday to petition the United States Embassy and other diplomatic missions including the European Union, the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), complaining of the alleged government’s political maneuvering to eliminate competition in 2023 presidential and legislative elections.

The former ruling party also drew the foreign missions’ attention to an ongoing election case that it fears is intended to deny it from fielding a candidate in the pending Lofa County senatorial by – election.

The Board of the National Elections Commission (NEC) this week affirmed a decision by the NEC’s Hearing Officer which stops the Unity Party from fielding a candidate in the Lofa County senatorial by-election until Liberia’s Supreme Court can make a determination on issues the UP raised before the commission.

The case at hand was filed with the NEC by a faction of the opposition Liberty Party (LP) which is chaired by Mr. Musa Bility, requesting the NEC to prevent UP and ALP from fielding candidates in the Lofa senatorial byby-election

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Bility believes that a clause within the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) would prevent the UP and ALP from fielding candidates in their own names in the Lofa senatorial by by-electiond the 2023 presidential and legislative elections after their withdrawals from the CPP.

The UP and ALP said they alerted the NEC that the CPP framework documents filed with the commission were   fferent from what they had signed and approved, accusing Mr. Alexander B. Cummings and his Alternative National Congress (ANC) of allegedly tampering with the documents.

Mr. Cummings and some ANC executives are facing a criminal trial at the Monrovia City Court on account of this allegation, though he has always denied any wrong doing.

However, the NEC has backed the decision of its hearing officer to stop the UP and ALP from fielding candidates in Lofa, leaving the parties to announce that they will appeal to the Supreme Court against the decision of the electoral house.

Reading the party’s petition Wednesday, Unity Party Chairman Amin Modad called the attention of the international community to what he claimed to be an ongoing “political maneuvering” intended to eliminate competition in the 2023 presidential and legislative elections by excluding viable political opposition.

Modad alleged that such dangerous maneuvering presents an early warning of the stifling and consequent failure of Liberia’s democracy which the international community has helped to protect and sustain with substantial financial and technical resources.

According to Modad, over the past months, the National Elections Commission (NEC) has shown an incremental lack of transparency in its dealing with the Unity Party.

“This is not an isolated action by the NEC but a part of a well-planned enterprise to target and eliminate the Unity Party and its Standard Bearer from the 2023 elections as opinion polls conducted throughout the country by media institutions show that the party presents a present real change of reclaiming power in the 2023 election,” Modad said.

He said the very poor performance by the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in the 2020 mid-term senatorial and other by- elections proved just how the government has become unpopular with the people.

Notwithstanding, Mr. Modad indicated that six of the eight signatories to the CPP framework document including three of the four CPP political leaders alerted the NEC that the CPP framework documents filed with the NEC was different than what they had signed and approved. 

He argued that this was one of the reasons that the UP and the ALP withdrew from the alliance. But lamented that the NEC insists on holding the parties to the terms of the document without any interest in establishing the veracity of their claims.

The Unity Party noted that what the NEC and the Government are trying to achieve equates to a ban of the Unity Party and the All Liberian Party as a penalty for exercising their constitutional rights to or not to associate, even though such rights are guaranteed by Article 17 of the 1986 Constitution.

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The New Dawn is Liberia’s Truly Independent Newspaper Published by Searchlight Communications Inc. Established on November 16, 2009, with its first hard copy publication on January 22, 2010. The office is located on UN Drive in Monrovia Liberia. The New Dawn is bilingual (both English & French).
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