Who’s telling the truth?

The National Elections Commission says it is not aware of the pending political rally of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) scheduled for Saturday, August 19, but the CDC claims it has written the NEC.

The commission says the rally under the banner, ‘Blue Day’ which is expected to mobilize about two million people in the streets of Monrovia is being planned without its acknowledge.

But the National Secretary General of the CDC, Janga Augustus Kowo, denies, saying that the CDC secretariat wrote the NEC and that the communication was delivered on Tuesday, August 15, at the headquarters of NEC received by a lady identified as Mercy Yapkpazue.

Mr. Kowo says the CDC is not naïve enough to not have written the NEC officially about its upcoming political campaign, though he did display copy of the letter purported written to the NEC.

NEC Chairman Cllr. Jerome Korkoya told a press conference on Wednesday, 16 August in Monrovia that the Coalition is yet to formally inform the commission about the rally.He says if authorities of the CDC did not inform the NEC, the rally will be in violation of guidelines of the commission.

Mr. Kowo calls on Cllr. Korkoya to check his records well before making such public utterances against the CDC. Guidelines of the National Elections Commission require all political parties and independent candidates participating in the October 10, 2017 Representatives and Presidential elections to present their calendar of events to the NEC for proper coordination to avoid clashes between and among rival parties.

Chairman Korkoya says it is the prayer of the commission that the Coalition will do a formal communication to the electoral house to avoid coming in conflict with the electoral guidelines.

He stresses the need for political parties to responsibly handle electoral matters in order to maintain peace and stability across Liberia. Chairman Korkoya’s comment followed utterance the CDC youth wing chairman, Jefferson Koijii that the company hired by the NEC to print ballots for the October 2017 election is alleged owned by a relative of Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai, who is candidate for the Presidency.

Cllr. Korkoya explains that the company is based in Europe with no indication of having local branch or any contact in the country, noting that Koijii’s assertion is intended to spark tension ahead of the polls. A total of 2,183,683 Liberians have registered to participate in the impending elections, according to the NEC.

By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor-Editing by Jonathan Browne