Very troubling news for our democracy if and only if the so- called amenment of United States Dollars 5,000.00, 7,500.00 and 10,000.00 respectively to the 1986 electon law to becomes the new fees for a representative, senatorial and presidential aspirant after said amenments are printed into hand bills. I believe the amenment is devilish, cruel, witch- hunting, selfish and lost the true spirit for equal participation as was being intended by the crafters of the 1986 constitution. The 1986 constitution spells out clearly the quaifitions requirements for a repreentative, senatorial or presidential aspirant: For a representative aspirant he or she must first be a Liberian citizen, resided in the district vying for one year prior to the election, be age twenty-five (25yrs) years and with no property value attached; a senatorial aspirant must also be a Liberian citizen, resided in the county he or she vying for one year prior to the election, be age thirty (30yrs) years and with no property value attached aslo; and a presidential aspirant must as well be a Liberian citizen, resided in the country ten (10ys) years prior to the elections, be age thirty-five (35yrs) years and with a property value not less than twenty-five thousand (25,000.00) dollars. My fellow intellectuls, these requirements as mentioned above give any good citizen the opportunity to freely participate in elections beause they are easily achievable; I termed this amenment to the elections law as selfish, devilish, cruel, inensitive, etc, etc because it will be reintroducing the crisis of participation in our country. I listened to the Senate Pro-Tempore last evening on Sky news giving reasons to justify the amenment by saying the senate believes that to run as a senator, a candidate may have more than seven thousand five hundred supporters, if each of these supporters were to pay a dollar US to the candidate, he or she would have had the USD 7,500.00 needed to afford the fees; similarly, a representative candidate who has five thousands supporters should as well pay a dollar US; while a political party should also be supported similarly to meet up with its fees. My question to the Pro-Temp is whether this is a new phenomenon the senate wants to introduce in the body politics of the country? Because he knows and the senate knows this is neither the culture nor the pattern of our politaking. Can he tell the Librian people if his fees in 2005 were being paid by his supporters then? If his answer is yes, can he publish the list of his supporters then and their individual amounts contributed? If the Pro-Temp answer will be a new phenomenon, then why this huge incremet of the fees from USD500.00, 750.00 to USD 5000.00 and 7,500.00 respectively for a representative and senator? Why it can be gradual, USD 750.00 and 1000.00 respectively for a rpresentative and senator? To the extend that this amenment has the propensity to deny a vast majority of our people thereby reintroducing the crisis of participation and killing the good intend of the crafters of the 1986 constitution to not make property a condition, makes this amenment cruel, wicked, bad,selfish, etc, etc; I am therefore calling on Madam President to line veto this amended portion of the amenment and in the event that the legisature ( comprising of 99.9% of so called country men and women) over ride the presidents veto by their two-third votes, we as good citizens vote out the current batch of senators who are seeking re-election during this mid-term election and by 2017 vote out these current representatives by rallying our supports to a lone candidate in a district or county any of them will be contesting a seat. They should be concerning themselves with the decent work bill, code of conduct, tenure of a law maker and president by reducing them, it will bring more joy to the Liberian people and enhance our democracy instead of enacting selfish laws.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 13:58:43 +0000
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