Former Chairman of the National Elections Commission(NEC), James Fromoyan, has blamed all the controversies and confusion trailing the process leading to next year’s general elections, raising an alarm that from the manner and shape the electoral body under Madam Davidetta Brown Lassaanah has been conducting itself, it is suggesting that the democratic process will not be peaceful as expected and called for the intervention of the international community to step in with the view of averting the crisis ahead.
The former NEC boss who made his opinion known about his impression of Madam Lassanah’s stewardship as it relates to her ability to conduct where he reminded the citizens of the consequences of the 1985 general elections which he said was rigged by former President Samuel Kanyon Doe and led to the 14 years of civil war, said it is very sad that Liberia may go similar route if care was not taken.
“It is very sad that history is about to repeat itself. Again, the National Elections Commission (NEC), this time around, under the leadership of Madam Davidetta Browne-Lansanah, has been conducting itself in a questionable and non-credible manner that glaringly undermines its independence. The unilateral decision by the NEC to conduct a mobile voter update exercise prior to the conduct of the 2020 Special Senatorial Election, a situation that could culminate in fraudulent Election results if the ECOWAS DATA MANAGEMENT TEAM had not intervened to salvage the Final Registration Roll (FRR) is a case in point. Additionally, the Commission’s acquiescence in the non-certification of Former Defense Minister J. Brownie Samukai who decisively won the 2020 Senatorial Election in Lofa County is another case worthy of emphasis. Having filed an application at the National Elections Commission as a Senatorial Aspirant for Lofa County consistent with Section 4.5(2) of the 29 September 1986 New Elections Law, the NEC scrutinized and qualified Hon. Samukai as a candidate in accordance with Section 2.9(n) of the 29 September 1986 New Elections Law”.
Recounting Lieria’s ugly past relating to poor conduct of elections, Mr. Fromoyan said at an alarming rate, Liberia is moving dangerously downward into an abyss , stressing that it is a very troubling and discouraging situation considering the recent past history of the country. He said that the civil war which started on December 24, 1989 claimed the lives of more than 200,000 citizens and residents was a conflict deeply rooted in the rigged presidential and legislative elections of 1985 conducted by the Special Elections Commision(SECOM) under the late Emmette Harmon whom he described as a veteran of the traditional True Whig Party politics and recruited by Doe to do the bidding for his National Democratic Party of Liberia(NDPL).
As a consequence, the 12 November 1985 attempted coup led by the late General Thomas Q. Quiwonkpa occurred. The Quiwonkpa’s rebellion resulted in the death of more than four hundred Liberians and was the prelude to Charles Taylor’s rebellion of 24 December 1989 from which Liberia is yet to fully recover. With the help of the International community led by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the prevailing fragile peace in Liberia was established following the death of numerous West African PeaceKeepers who paid the ultimate price in the cause of saving Liberians from themselves. Moreover, more than six billion United States Dollars was reportedly expended by the International Community to extinguish a fire that Liberians, to a large degree, ignited themselves”.
Mr. Fromoyan said history is about to repeat itself this time around with NEC under the leadership of Mrs. Davidetta Brown Lassanah who according to him has been conducting itself in a questionable and non-credible manner that glaringly undermines its independence. He said the unilateral decision by the NEC to conduct a mobile voter update exercise prior to the conduct of the 2020 Special Senatorial Election, a situation that could culminate in fraudulent Election results if the ECOWAS DATA MANAGEMENT TEAM had not intervened to salvage the Final Registration Roll (FRR) is a case in point.
He said additionally, the Commission’s acquiescence in the non-certification of Former Defense Minister J. Brownie Samukai who decisively won the 2020 Senatorial Election in Lofa County is another case worthy of emphasis.
“Having filed an application at the National Elections Commission as a Senatorial Aspirant for Lofa County consistent with Section 4.5(2) of the 29 September 1986 New Elections Law, the NEC scrutinized and qualified Hon. Samukai as a candidate in accordance with Section 2.9(n) of the 29 September 1986 New Elections Law. Moreover, the Commission proceeded to conduct the Special Senatorial Election across Liberia, an election, as announced by the NEC, that Hon. Samukai undisputedly won in Lofa County. For the NEC to abandon Hon. Samukai, and subsequently failed to certify his election because of a legal challenge that should have been prior to and not after the election, seriously eroded the credibility, transparency, and independence of the National Elections Commission. That colossal failure by the Commission made a large segment of Liberia’s population perceive the National Elections Commission (NEC) as an extension of the ruling Congress for Democratic Change (CDC)”.
Continuing further, Fromoyan said rather than embarking on serious efforts to rebuild its credibility, the National Elections Commission has by its recent actions created more doubts relating to its resolve, impartiality, and competence to conduct in a free, fair, and credible manner, the very crucial Presidential and Legislative Elections of 2023. He noted that the recent ruling made by the NEC in the case brought by the Musa Bility’s faction of the Liberty Party (LP) and the Alternative National Congress (ANC) against the All Liberian Party (ALP) and the Unity Party (UP) relating to withdrawal from the CPP generated more questions than answers.
“It was a decision enveloped by ambiguity devoid of clarity. The NEC Junior Hearing officer, Atty. Fomba Swaray ruled that the NEC lacks jurisdiction to provide an answer to the question as to whether one can associate fully with others or refuse to associate with Political Parties, trade unions, and other organizations in accordance with Article 17, under Fundamental Rights, of the 1986 Constitution of Liberia. He further indicated that the Supreme Court of Liberia is the sole authority to answer said question. But surprisingly, Atty. Swaray, having conceded NEC’s lack of Jurisdiction over a Constitutional matter, complicated and created ambiguity by concluding that no further action would be taken relating to UP participation in the Lofa County By-Election pending a decision by the Honorable Supreme Court”, he said.
Touching on the crisis surrendering the Collaborating Political Parties(CPP), Fromoyan , who resigned from the Chairmanship of NEC under controversial circumstances said that If the Commission had meticulously done its job, the current confusion relating to the Framework Document of the CPP would have been avoided, noting that In effect, there could be no contention relating to the alteration of any provision of the said CPP Framework document be it original or photocopy that was submitted to the National Elections Commission (NEC).
“Had the NEC not neglected its duties, Section 8.5 of the CPP Framework Document would have been corrected by the NEC prior to the accreditation of the CPP as a coalition or collaboration. Said directive by the NEC could have been fully justified because the said section 8.5 of the CPP Framework Document is inconsistent with Article 17 of the 1986 Constitution of Liberia. The failure of the NEC to fully discharge its duties is a cardinal part of the crisis that has balkanized the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP)”.
While casting doubt on the competence of Madam Lassanah and her team to conduct a credit elections in 2023, Fromoyan said the framers of Liberia’s Electoral Laws had envisaged, that the President, in pursuit of the collective national interest, would appoint individuals of good moral character, qualification, and requisite experience to administer the affairs of the National Elections Commission, a very critical national institution. He said that to emphasize their intent, the framers of Liberia’s Electoral Laws, in Section 2.3, indicated that the “Commissioners shall be of good moral character”. but regrettably, there is no evidence to suggest that President Weah, in the exercise of the powers granted him by the aforementioned Section 2.2 of the 1986 New Elections Law, devoted much attention to the nomination and appointment of individuals, adequately competent, to protect the collective national interest, as opposed to the protection of the narrow partisan interest.
“The result is the prevailing credibility and competency crisis that confronts the Electoral Management Body (EMB) of Liberia. If this crisis is not reversed until the conduct of the crucial 2023 Presidential and Legislative Elections, the potential for the retrogression of Liberia into a State of anarchy would be very huge”, he warns.
Suggesting the way forward to avert any possible crisis in the future, Fromoyan proposed among other things, that a five (5) member counter-part Commissioners comprising representatives of the United Nations, the African Union (AU), and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) be urgently organized by the International Community to validate all actions of the current National Elections Commission (NEC) to ensure that the planning and conduct of the 2023 Presidential and Legislative Elections are executed in accordance with international best practice. This would ensure the consolidation of our democratic experiment and the protection of the collective interest and That International IT Experts be assigned to operate the Data Center in conjunction with the NEC Data Team to ensure the protection of the collective interest. Moreover, the Data Center should be accessible to all Political Parties and Independent Candidates to erase the existence of doubts regarding the transparency of the process;
“To prevent a repeat of the fraud that was associated with the application of the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) system during the conduct of the 2017 Presidential and Legislative Elections, there is a critical and compelling need for the application of the Biometric Enrollment System (BES) during the conduct of the 2023 Presidential and Legislative Elections;
“Section 6.1 of the 1986 Elections Law mandates that complaints arising from the conduct of elections conducted by the Elections Commission, be filed with the Commission. This mandate places the Commission in the position of judge and jury. Additionally, it distracts the Commission from its key functions of conducting and declaring the result of elections in a timely manner. To avoid a repeat of this situation in 2023, there is an urgent need to establish a temporary election court to primarily focus on the adjudication of election complaints to enable the Elections Commission to focus on the execution of its key mandates and thus enhance its credibility”, Mr. Fromoyan said.
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