Africa-Press – Liberia. Former Information Minister Lamini Waritay has described as “unnecessarily alarmist and hysterical” the press statement issued by the National Elections Commission (NEC) and published by FrontPageAfrica, “falsely and maliciously accusing” him of “wanting to “undermine the electoral process and expose the Commission to disrepute and endanger members of its staff, while at the same time threatening the peace.”
Prof. Waritay labeled the Davidetta Browne-led Commission’s press statement as “an overexcited and knee-jerk reaction, and an exercise in willful misrepresentation and scapegoating, all designed to cover the inadequacies of a commission that is laboring under a cloud of suspicion in regard to its impartiality.
He pointed out that if the Commission had applied some level of English language comprehension to what he refers to as his “benign comments on the need for the Commission to do the ‘right thing’ by fairly and transparently conducting the October elections,” the Board would have possibly thought twice before embarking on what he describes as “a campaign of calumny” against him with the “sole purpose of presenting him in a bad light.”
Mr. Waritay explained that his reference about rigging was “conditional”, and not “categorical” or “definitive”. He furthered that “all what I endeavored to put across to the NEC and its technical staff is that with all the rumors of rigging, and with partisans of the incumbent openly boasting of rigging the elections, any such plans or ambitions to rig or manipulate the pending elections will only be possible if NEC acquiesces to it, as it is the only body which has the means to do so if it so wishes. I never suggested for a moment that the NEC will rig the elections.”
Far from wanting to embark on what the NEC statement refers to as “dangerous attempt to undermine the electoral process and expose the Commission to disrepute and endanger members of its staff” and threatening the peace,” Waritay said “To the contrary, my statement on the NEC was an admonition meant to alert the NEC to the consequential nature of the October elections and the imperative of the Commission, as an impartial referee, not to knuckle under any exogenous or endogenous attempts to rig the elections.”
Such a necessary piece of advice, Waritay explained, in no way translates into accusing the NEC of wanting to rig the elections. “By the way,” the former Press Union president asked, “what is more dangerous: an exhortation to do things right and avoid problems, or the propensity to create a situation or an environment that has the potential to unravel society?”
Waritay made it clear that his observations about the need for “truly credible, fair and transparent elections are in line with my longstanding activism aimed at ensuring that multi-party democracy, of which free, fair, credible, transparent and inclusive elections are key elements, is entrenched in the country, and that when voters go the polls at any time, no one or no entity should take away their fundamental democratic right to use their votes to determine who should govern them.” He added that, his “life-long advocacy has been pivoted around the struggle to democratize Liberian society, expand the theater of free expression, and foster peace and stability.”
He declared that “only those who are recently emerging on the national political stage, or have been hiding under a rock all these years, and so have not been following my political and media activities over the decades, would elect to refer to me as someone who “undermines the electoral process and exposes the Commission to disrepute and endangers members of its staff, while at the same time threatening the peace.” Waritay then wondered whether all of the commissioners who signed off on that “cry-baby release” are aware that he “was part of the Post-Cotonou Liberian Ad-Hoc Electoral Commission of Liberia’ in 1994 that laid the foundational pillars for the very NEC they are now serving on.”
Prof. Waritay said while he respects every individual commissioner at the NEC, “their acerbic reaction to my statement compels me to challenge them to show how much contribution any one of them may have made in fostering peace, democratic participation, and protection of civil liberties in the country compared to what I have done in these areas over a stretch of three decades at considerable risk to myself.” He added that “Without wishing to sound boastful, none of those casting me as a flamethrower has enough activist background to lecture me on democracy, or on free but responsible expression, or the conduct of credible elections.”
Like everyone else, Waritay opined, “I have my political sympathies. But I am not a card-carrying member of any political party. I have always been a professional in my discipline and will remain so. My statement was issued in good faith, not on the basis of partisanship or a disposition to grandstand or to purposefully bring anybody into disrepute, but to ensure that at least for once we start doing things the right way in the country.”
The communications strategist and consultant observed that “The feverish, groundless and hyperactive content of NEC’s release on what is otherwise an innocuous statement can be likened to a proverb in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, that says, “An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb”. In this regard, argued Mr. Waritay, if NEC is so confident in its capacity, capabilities, transparency, and honesty to conduct free, fair, and credible elections, why should the commission get so bent out of shape when someone as much as mentions the possibility of vote rigging even without directly accusing the commission.”
“In any case,” Waritay asked, “are the NEC commissioners not aware that elections do not necessarily have to be rigged on elections day, and that undertaking shambolic registration of voters, slow-walking certain aspects of the process, like missing key schedules in the process, including the timely availability of the Final Registration Role (FFR), the outright absence of voter education, among many related aspects of the process, constitute some form of a priori rigging?
Meanwhile, Waritay asked, “how come this very belligerent NEC has not even sneezed over, let alone take issue with those who are predicting that ‘There will be blood in the streets of Monrovia” after the NEC has conducted the October elections”?
The former minister then concluded by asserting that “If public officials cannot stand the heat, they should either do the right thing, or leave the kitchen, instead of looking for scapegoats or yelling fire where there is none.”
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