The opposition Liberty Party has been struggling to find its bearing and prestige since its founding Political Leader, Cllr Charles Walker Brumskine, passed away. The internal imbroglio is worsening by the day as the current Chairperson, Musa Hasan Bility and other executive members on the one hand and the current Political Leader, Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence and her supporters on the other battle for supremacy. With the Bility faction appearing to be in control of the party, the Lawrence faction sees no other suspect in the confusion and disintegration the Liberty Party is suffering than the Electoral Management Body, the National Elections Commission, which it views as being in cohort with Mr. Bility. As The Analyst reports, the Chairman of the de facto LP, Senator Steve Zargo, is sounding bellicose, assuring partisans that it is only a matter of time before the “Bility-NEC Alliance” licks the wounds of their conspiracy.
The faction of the Liberty Party chaired by Senator Steve Zargo and the Political Leader Nyonblee Karngar Lawrence is accusing the National Elections Commission of emboldening the embattled Chairman, Musa Hassan Bility, to take hold of the party.
Senator Zargo, reading a press statement yesterday, January 17, 2022, said on closer examination, “we can now deduce that there is a higher influence outside of the ordinary that is driving the NEC-Bility unholy alliance in this matter.”
“We recall upon the submission of our communication to NEC redrawing the 2021 Constitution, [the NEC] remained tight-lipped until Mr. Bility wrote, two weeks later, to insist that his 2021 Constitution was legitimate, even after his acknowledgement at Farmington, of the unauthorized changes he made in the Constitution,” Senator Zargo stated at the press conference. “It was within the matter of hours that NEC wrote to our Political Leader calling for a hearing. Was the NEC waiting to entertain Mr. Bility’s reaction?”
He said in the minds the Political Leader’s LP, similar actions of NEC occurred when a challenge was mounted against the 2021 Convention by different partisan groups, but again the NEC remained hesitant, and finally unresponsive to complaint filed to it by partisans.
The Zargo faction of LP accused the NEC as always acting expeditiously in issues raised by Mr. Bility, as it did in the case of Commissioner Taplah Reeves’ influence-driven communication that provided an outlet for Mr. Bility to have staged a “Convention” in Ganta on the 18th of December.
“While taking aim at NEC on account of its communication referencing the 2021 annulled constitution, we wish to also state that said communication is vague as far as our decision nullifying the 2021 Convention and all decisions arising therefrom for a lack of quorum,” the Zargo statement asserts: “The decision returning the party to status quo ante stands, and anyone doing otherwise, including the NEC, is off tangent. The National Elections Commission has absolutely no control in the internal decision of Liberty Party.”
He said the LP under the control has used all internal processes in line with the Guidelines of the NEC and have accordingly informed her about the outcomes.
“Aggrieved partisans may now proceed to court or utilize other internal mechanisms,” he said, adding: “Finally, we wish to assure our partisans, far and near, that this NEC-Bility conspiracy to ruin Liberty Party shall not see the light of day. It will be defeated to its face, using everything available to us. Meanwhile, as our lawyers move to expeditiously handle the National Elections Commission and co-conspirator Bility, we call on our partisans to remain calm but vigilant.”
The Zargo statement was in response response to a communication addressed to his Political Leader, Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, by the National Elections Commission, upholding the 2021 Constitution which elected the Bility leadership and was later nullified by the Political Party on account of a probe over the legality of the February 2021 Special Party Conference.
“Liberty Party believes the moment is ripe to bring the NEC in check as to what it can and cannot do with the internal decisions of political parties,” said the statement further. “The National Elections Commission, by its response to Liberty Party upholding a questionable communication from Commissioner Taplah Reeves, which ignored all conventional approaches required for the settlement of intra-party disputes, has now clearly presented itself as an accomplice to the calculated design by Mr. Bility and cohorts to destabilize Liberty Party.”
Senator indicated that on successive occasions, the LP provided information to the NEC, detailing outcomes of their internal dispute resolution mechanism, as requested by the Commission.
“We refer to the Farmington Memorandum that confirmed alterations by Mr. Bility in the now annulled 2021 Constitution,” he said. “Further to that, our layers of dispute resolution and processes have determined the 2021 Constitution was withdrawn on November 13, 2021 and was accordingly replaced with a notarized copy of the 2015 Constitution that stands as the only legitimate instrument to which the National Elections Commission may refer in its dealings with Liberty Party.”
“Even in the absence of the submission of the 2015 Constitution, NEC could not have reasonably and legally proceeded to give substance to a document that was withdrawn by the proper and legal authority under the Liberty Party Constitution, following the satisfaction of our internal processes.”
The Zargo LP states that it finds it very subtle and indeed, a subliminal argument by NEC suggesting that once a document is notarized and submitted to it by a chairman and a secretary general, it cannot be withdrawn until amended.
The statement asserts: “We wish to remind the NEC that the principal reason for depositing the constitutions of political parties with it is to use those instruments as reference guides in determining matters arising within political parties. Would the NEC, in its reasonable judgment, use the 2021 Constitution as a reference to determine a dispute within Liberty Party, having known that the said document was altered in content?”
In this case, the Party said, “we have determined as a party (as in the case of the Farmington MOU and the outcome of the internal investigation board set up to determine the constitutionality of the 2021 Convention) that not only was the 2021 Constitution an outcome of an illegal convention, but said instrument was also clandestinely changed by the then Chairman, Mr. Musa Hassan Bility.”
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