Africa-Press – Liberia. The chairman of the Liberty Party, Mr. Musa Hassan Bility, has warned that members of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) who were elected in the December 2020 Special Senatorial Elections risk losing their seats if Framework Document submitted to the National Elections Commission (NEC) is revised.
At a program marking the extra-ordinary convention of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), the embattled Liberty Party chair dispelled claims that the Framework document of the CPP submitted to the NEC was altered by him and other members of the CPP.
He also warned that the document as presented to the NEC cannot be changed and any attempt to do so could nullify the legitimacy of Senators who were elected on the ticket of the CPP in the December 2020 Special Senatorial Elections.
“The risk of changing the Framework document is huge and let me warn people claiming the document was amended or changed. Any attempt to change what was sent to the NEC will mean all those elected on the CPP ticket in the just ended senatorial election will be withdrawn, because it was on that document they were elected,” he said.
Mr. Bility is currently unsettled as Chairman of the Liberty Party which is one of the constituent parties in the CPP because he’s being accused by some of his own partisans of tampering with the CPP framework document to favor Mr. Alexander Cummings.
Because of the allegation, Senator Karnga-Lawrence of the LP wrote the NEC, requesting copy of the document sent to them by Mr. Bility for review to ascertain facts about claims that he altered the CPP framework document.
At one point, Mr. Benoni Urey the political leader of the All Liberian Party (ALP) alleged that high-ranking members of the CPP altered the Framework of the political body, despite it being in existence for over a year.
Mr. Urey failed to mention the names of those he believes altered the framework, neither did he mention which part of the framework has been tampered with.
In a communication dated August 18, 2021 to the CPP Chair, Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, Mr. Urey stated that his allegation stemmed from information gathered from impeccable sources and its validity cannot be doubted.
He alleged, “Madam Chair, this letter essentially seeks to inform you that the All Liberian Party (ALP) has reliably learned that certain portions and clauses within the organic framework document of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) have been dubiously, viciously, and purposefully altered allegedly by some nefarious individuals within the hierarchy of the CPP – and replaced by ‘Alien Clauses’ to engender ulterior motives.”
Mr. Urey then urged Senator Karnga-Lawrence to launch an investigation into what he termed as “a potential looming danger that could derail the CPP”. He called for the establishment of an independent investigative panel comprising four members of good reputation and at the same time, inform the National Elections Commission (NEC) of the “alleged notorious tampering of the Framework documents within the NEC possession.”
Mr. Urey called for the retrieval of the framework document from the NEC so that it can be compared to the original and organic copy that bears the signatures of all four leaders of the CPP.
Urey’s allegation came amid similar allegation by Senator Karnga-Lawerence, political leader of the Liberty Party, against her party Chairman, Musa Bility. She alleged that the version of the party’s amended constitution which was submitted to the NEC was altered. She called for the withdrawal of the constitution.
However, the NEC urged the Liberty Party to use internal mechanisms to resolve their differences. Speaking on Urey’s complaint, a member of the CPP who asked for anonymity questioned why the ALP political leader would raise the issue when the Framework document had been in existence for more than a year. The CPP member said they believe that Mr. Urey is looking for loopholes to leave the CPP arrangement and break the collaboration.
