Africa-Press – Liberia. Former Vice President and Standard Bearer of the opposition Unity Party (UP), Joseph N. Boakai has termed the National Elections Commission (NEC) provisional listing as indicative of a sinister attempt to deprive the party of fielding its senatorial candidate in Lofa County 2022 by-election.
Amb. Boakai said the party is concerned as any delay in giving the Unity Party’s candidate his full clearance is a deliberate plan to delay his campaign and give the others due advantage.
Amb. Boakai said the Unity Party takes notice with very serious concern that the name of its candidate, Galakpai W. Kortimai, is not among those being cleared as one of the Provisional Aspirants even though he has met all the requirements provided under the elections laws and Constitution.
The National Elections Commission (NEC) of Liberia under the leadership of Mrs. Davidetta Browne Lansanah, over the last twenty-four hours, released the Lofa County senatorial by-election Race Provisional List.
“We take serious note of the reason given by the NEC and we are therefore following very keenly and critically the activities of the ongoing hearings at the NEC Headquarters. While our capable team of Lawyers are making quality representation on our behalf, of which we are very pleased, we are nevertheless aware of the undertones of the hearings which smelled of a sinister attempt to deprive the Unity Party of fielding our senatorial candidate in Lofa for 2022 by-election and presidential and other candidates in the 2023 elections,” Amb. Boakai said.
Amb. Boakai said the Unity Party and people of Lofa have had enough, and will not continue to accept being insulted, disrespected, and disenfranchised by the Weah government.
“Make no mistake that our position taken in the disenfranchisement of Lofa citizens in the case of Senator-elect Brownie Samukai, was not from a position of weakness,” Amb. Boakai said.
He said any attempt to exclude the Unity Party from its legitimate and constitutional rights to contest as a registered political party, once the ruling party of Liberia, will be a direct infringement of the political participation of hundreds of thousands of Liberian voters who will be disenfranchised, gullible, and subsequently exposed to matters that could have national security concerns.
“I am sending a clarion call to the National Elections Commission again, that it is our expectation that the NEC will do the right thing. Let me again state categorically, that there will be no final listing from the Elections Commission published for the Lofa County by-election senatorial Race that will not have the name of the Unity Party Candidate, and thus I must repeat that we expect the NEC to do the right thing,” Amb. Boakai said.
Amb. Boakai said he remains resolute on his unflinching commitment to the people of Lofa, UP partisans, and supporters around the country and the Diaspora that, as their leader and torchbearer, he is sufficiently prepared and will do all within his means to ensure that not one Lofa citizen will again be disrespected and disenfranchised under his leadership during this 2022 by-election Lofa senatorial race.
He said the wrongs UP is fighting to correct in Lofa will not also be accepted in any other political subdivision in Liberia, stating “we await the final outcome of the NEC’s Nomination Committee Scrutiny Panel and we pray that God will guide the decision-making of all those involved.”
Amb. Boakai made the remarks at a press conference on Thursday, April 14, at his office in Paynesville, outside the nation’s capital, Monrovia.
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