Africa-Press – Liberia. Members of National Advisory Committee of the Opposition Liberty Party (LP) have met to resolve internal conflict within the party, which has been rocked by acrimonious internal wrangling.
The Meeting was held on the 2nd of October 2021 in at the Farmington Hotel in Margibi County. At the end, Party’s officials adopted a resolution, a copy of which is in the position of this paper. The party, among many things, agreed to withdraw its constitution that is currently at the National Elections Commission and seek procedure to submit a new one.
The decision to do so became necessary at the Farmington meeting after it was agreed that the current constitution at the National Elections Commission (NEC) is different from what was agreed at the party’s Grand Bassa County Executive Sitting held in 2020.
In the resolution, the Party’s Executive Committee agreed that a committee comprising the Political leader, Chairman and the Advisory Council Chairman, along with three resource persons seek clarification from the NEC on the proper procedures on filing the party’s Constitution.
They also agreed to jointly issue a Memo placing a moratorium on unauthorized public pronouncements by all executives of the party on issues relating to the LP constitution and operations.
In August of 2021, Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, Political Leader of the Liberty Party (LP), appointed a 10-man special committee to investigate the alleged tampering of the party’s constitution.
Those appointed were Debar W. Allen (Chairman), Mrs. Carmenia Abdallai, Mr. Harrison S. Karnwea, Hon. Hans Barchue, Cllr. Carlos Smith, Mr. Jacob J. Smith, And Mr. Nathaniel Barnes. Others include Madam Clarice A. Jah, Rev. Eric S. Gbogar, Sr., and Mr. Philip Suah.
The Liberty Party in a statement informed partisans and the public that the Political Leader is working on the modalities to resolve the issue of the alleged altering of its constitution; starting with setting up the investigation board.
“Liberty Party will temporarily revert to the 2015 constitution, which preceded the constitution that is being questioned and withdrawn until the investigation is completed and reports submitted to NEC,” the party said in a statement issued after the meeting.
The party said it recognizes that this is occurring at a critical time when Liberty Party is collaborating with stakeholders within the CPP framework.
“We will continue to engage at the CPP level while ensuring our Party remains true to its ideals. As the Political Leader prepares to host a press conference with additional information as soon as possible, we ask all of our partisans to remain calm and conciliatory within our party. Our goal is to sustain the institution and our culture of following the rule of law.
“The adoption of constitutional amendments was conducted and the election of officers to steer the affairs of the Party was held thereafter.”
On July 10, 2021, the Chairman of the Party, Mr. Musa Bility, also wrote to counter the letter of the Political Leader. Subsequently, on Monday, August 16, 2021, the NEC cited the parties to a conference and referred the party to its internal conflict resolution mechanism as per Section 3.3 of its Guidelines governing the conducts of political parties, thus:
“Every Political Party shall ensure the creation of a Grievance and Ethics Committee in its structure. The Grievance and Ethics Committee shall ensure that every partisan is given due process in time of disputes. All intra-party disputes must first be heard and disposed of by the Grievance and Ethics Committee. Partisans who are dissatisfied with a decision of the Grievance and Ethics Committee may appeal to the Executive Committee of the party.”
The decision from NEC asking the party to return to its grievance and ethics committee came as a response to the letter written by the chairman to NEC to counter the letter from the Political Leader to withdraw the constitution, which required a hearing of the matter.
This hearing, requested by Mr. Bility, was denied on because the party had not done the internal investigation. The Farmington meeting was attended by the Party Political Leader Senator Nyounblee Karnga-Lawrence, Senator Darius Dillon as Resource Person and the Party National Chairman Mr. Musa Bility. The meeting was also attended by the seven members of the advisory council.
At the meeting the Political Leader and the National chairman both agreed to deal with the substantive, and that the national Advisory Committee replaces the seven members committee constituted to reconcile the differences between the political leader and the Chairman on the submission of the 2021 constitution to the national Elections Commission (NEC) both in terms of procedures and content.
At the Farmington meeting, it was also agreed that decision emanating from the October 2nd meeting be binding on both the Political leader and the National chairman of the Party. At the meeting both parties presented their views on the situation and the reason leading there to. After an interactive deliberation, both the roles of the political leader and the Chairman was set. It was agreed that in the spirit of separation of functions, the powers of the Political leader and the national chairman be clearly stated.
Role of political leader
They agreed that the political leader will, in consultation with the Executive Committee of the Party, formulate policies and procedures to implement the decisions of the national convention, call special convention as provided for in Article VII and take such other actions and proper measures that he/she may deem necessary to advance the best interest of the Party.
Role of the of the Chairman
In the resolution it is agreed that the role of the national chairman shall be the chief administrative officer of the Party. He/she shall serve or act as leader and Chief Representative or Spokesman of the party in the absence or incapacitation of the standard bearer.
