Africa-Press – Liberia. Former Minister of Information, Prof. Lamini Waritay, has said that the National Elections Commission (NEC) is the “only body” that has the power to “categorically rig” the October 10 polls.
Waritay, in a statement yesterday, noted that “no one can arm-twist” the electoral body to distort the results of the October elections if “seven commissioners” are more patriotic and loyal to the nation than any parochial interest.
“The high level of suspicion over the impartiality of the NEC is due to the several instances which include dropping the ball along the way in respect to keeping key electoral dates and in regard to such other pertinent areas like voter registration, the efficient and timely compilation of voter roll, and conducting necessary voter education,” Waritay added.
“The NEC commissioners and the officials of the incumbent government must not do anything that could drag the country further down into poverty and into a pariah status, and set back the democratic gains the country has managed to make in the past nearly 20 years,” he said.
The former minister’s position comes amid fear from the leading opposition, Unity Party, that Presidency George Weah and his Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) are doing everything in their power to have the elections rigged even though they have not presented any evidence of such.
He, however, noted that it is incumbent upon the authorities of the electoral body to understand that the October 10 polls are consequential for the stability and development of the country, and “for the consolidation of peaceful and credible multi-party elections for which many Liberians died over the decades.”
Waritay, who served his ministerial post in the Interim Government of the late Dr. Amos C. Sawyer, noted that the legal and moral responsibility of transparent elections, which reflect the will of the people at the end of the exercise, “rests with all the commissioners individually and collectively.”
He said each and every commissioner at the electoral body will be held accountable by the Liberian people if something goes wrong with the transparency and fairness of the elections.
“The statute that set up the NEC entrusts the efficient, transparent, and credible conduct of elections in the country not to only one person or commissioner (in this case, Davidite Brown Lansanah), but to all seven commissioners constituting the Commission. That is why there are seven, and NOT one Commissioner,” Waritay stated.
He explained that “a viable, competent, and effective elections commission cannot be operating under the radar. Its activities at every stage have to be open, clear, and beyond suspicion to be seen as a disinterested and impartial referee.”
“If the government delays in making resources and logistics needed by the NEC, Waritay said, the commission should propitiously let the Liberian people know so that they know whom to hold responsible for any delay in the timelines and associated problems.
“Likewise, if any government official is mounting pressure on the commission to do what is not right, the commissioners should be brave, professional, and patriotic enough to raise the red flag.”
The former activist and erstwhile President of the Press Union is at the same time urging the collective opposition not to leave the monitoring of the NEC’s conduct to only one opposition political party or a few groups, as the situation calls for “collective attention and focus” irrespective of political positions or party affiliation.
Voters must be assured that their votes will be counted accurately after they have peacefully gone to the polls,” Waritay noted, adding, “That way, the country will have a soft landing after one of the most, if not the most defining elections in the history of the country.”
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