ELECTION MUST BE HELD COME OCTOBER THIS YEAR! Comrades, I want to take this time as we fight Ebola out of Liberia to reflects on our past history and warn our government as she proceed with the current state of affairs of our country to be responsible. Comrades, Liberia was a one –party state for one hundred and thirty –three (133) years: the Americo-Liberian True Whig party which dominated all sectors of the country, was in power since independence until 1980 when Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe seized power in a coup d’etat. The Government controlled political as well as military life in Liberia. After Doe’s National Democratic Party of Liberia ‘won’ the 1985 elections, human rights abuses, corruption, nepotism were on the increase as a result ethnic tension increased while the standard of living deteriorated. The Liberian Constitution (Article 83A) provides the legal basis for the National Elections Commissions (NEC) to conduct elections. It states: “voting for the President, Vice President, members of the Senate and members of the House of Representatives shall be conducted throughout the Republic of Liberia on the second Tuesday in October of each election year”. In keeping with this provision, the Special Senatorial election must be held on October 14, 2014. Anything short of that, it is a violation of our constitution and it is punishable under our law. Furthermore, the special senatorial Election must be conducted in keeping with Article 46 of the Liberian constitution and sub-chapter 1; Section 1.2 of the New Elections Law of Liberia for the purpose of replacing fruitless Senators of the first category elected during the 2005 Presidential and Legislative Elections. In fulfillment of these legal provisions, two (2) aspects of the electoral cycle were completed. The first is the completion of the voters’ roll update. The second is the nomination of candidates to the National Elections Commission (NEC) and their subsequent certification by the NEC. Against this backdrop, I like to call on the NEC to make public the qualify candidates and subsequently certificate them with immediate effect Comrades are you aware that, the total number of registered voters in the country (Liberia) is 1,903,229; this figure is representing the combination of figures from the 2011 voter registration exercise and the 2014 voter roll update process. The total number of registered voter in 2011 was 1,798,930 while the 2014 voter roll update exercise registered 104,710 new voters. Of this number, 986,190 or 52% are males while 917,039 or 48% are females. Based on these analysis, Montserrado county constitute the highest number of registered voters totaling 649,484 or 34% Followed by Nimba with 241,903 registered voters or 13%, while Bong and Lofa Counties have 178,866 and 164,203 or 9% each respectively. As per my critical analysis, the registered voters between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two(18-22) constitute twenty –two percent(22%) and those between the ages of twenty three and twenty seven(23-27) constitute nineteen percent(19%) voters between the age range of twenty –eight and thirty-two(28-32) constitute fifteen percent(15%) and those falling in the range of thirty-three and thirty seven(33-37)years accounted for eleven percent (11%). Comrades, these age percentages represent 70% percent of our total electorates, which made the age group of eighteen to thirty –seven years (18-37), a critical factor in shaping the outcome of any national election in Liberia. With the above affirmation, which speaks clearly to our importance in our electoral process, I call on all young people of our country who are eligible voters to be mindful in the upcoming special senatorial election and the 2017 national election in pledging their support to political leaders and political institutions.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 22:21:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015