By Lewis S. Teh
Mr. Emmanuel Gonquoi, the head of a political pressure group called Economic Freedom Fighters of Liberia (EFFL), alleges that President George Manneh Weah is a bad product of democracy.
At a press conference held in the Old Road Community Monday, 10 October 2022, Gonquoi warned citizens against supporting President Weah’s second presidential term bid.
” George Weah is a bad product of democracy and when you have [a] bad product of democracy, you take steps,” said Gonquoi.
The pressure group leader who goes by the title of Commander-In-Chief of EFFL, angrily told journalists that democracy was not designed to give any country an emperor.
He said it was neither designed to give a country tyrants as leaders because they are bad products of democracy.
Gonquoi lamented that people will claim to love Liberia and want the best for the country, yet they are supporting a bad product of democracy. He said this undermined the credibility of the country.
Commenting on electoral matters in the country, Gonquoi alleged that the National Elections Commission (NEC) lacks total independence to adequately handle the country’s electoral process.
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Gonquoi explained that since 5 January 2022, his EFFL has written the NEC on the status of its registration process, but officials at the commission are yet to reply to his organization.
He alleged that the NEC’s refusal to grant EFFL certificate is due to the commission allegedly taking instructions from President Weah.
He accused President Weah’s government of allegedly interfering with EFFL’s registration process at the NEC and preventing it from granting EFFL a certificate of registration as a political party.
He said this comes despite EFFL allegedly presenting every necessary required document.
Gonquoi said those responsible at the NEC to certify the EFFL have embarked on alleged delay tactics toward the pressure’s registration process.
He said the EFFL is now convinced that the government is not interested in playing to the rules.
He lamented that the government is not interested in respecting the tenet of democracy which guarantees multiparty democracy.
Meanwhile, Gonquoi said the EFFL lowering its political pressure was intentional, judging from experience.
“We were thinking that this would have helped in our pursuit of legally transitioning from just being a pressure group to a legitimate political party,” he said.
He noted that their process has unfortunately been stalled by some unpatriotic men and women sitting in very sensitive government positions, with some even being at the NEC.
“Knowing the history of the CDC (Coalition for Democratic Change) and how they have proceeded when critical institutions have disagreed with them, [we] couldn’t continue our pressure,” he said.
“The EFFL lowered its political pressure to allow the government sees its weakness to speedily work on the process of [obtaining] the certificate as a registered political party in the country,” he added.
