IF WHAT WE are hearing is something to go by, it is likely the Press Union of Liberia Saturday night, November 19, 2022 elections in Gbarnga, Bong County, may be considered null and void if the aggrieved party were to further pursue the matter in court.
WHILE WE ARE not lawyers or even pretend to be, what we do know in legal matters such as the recent injunction placed on the Union’s electoral process, it is legally questionable for the same court to place the injunction to lift it without first calling the contending parties to a hearing or stating the reason why the injunction was removed.
NEVERTHELESS, THE PUL Elections Committee chaired by Attorney-at-law, Ade Wede Kekuleh, said it proceeded with the elections because the same court that placed the injunction did remove it.
BESIDES, IN THE case of an injunction like the Bong County 9th Judicial Circuit Court’s injunction on the PUL elections, the parties are called for a hearing and thereafter, a final decision is made.
BUT IN THIS case, we heard of no hearing between the contending or aggrieved parties.
AS FAR AS we do know, no judge will quash an injunction without first conducting a hearing with the parties involved.
IN THE MIDST of all this, Monrovia City Mayor, Jefferson Koijee, is accused of influencing Judge Boima Kontoe’s decision to have removed the injunction, but as far as this IPNEWS is concerned, it remains a mere allegation until it is proven. Though a legal counsel at the Monrovia City Corporation, Samuel S. Pearson represented the PUL in its pursuit to quash the injunction previously placed on the PUL Congress by the 9th Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga, Bong County.
HOWEVER, IN THE more than 50-year history of the Press Union of Liberia since its founding in 1964, the Saturday night, November 19, 2022, elections were the most poorly attended elections by members of the Union.
TO HAVE HAD the elections in the night was even unprecedented.
JUST IMAGINE, OF a total of one thousand four hundred twenty-six registered members or eligible voters, only a little over three hundred showed up to cast their ballot.
IN THIS CASE, we think that the number required to have formed a quorum for the just-ended congress was not obtained.
THAT ALSO MEANS the congress itself was conducted without a quorum and as it is often said, ‘What is not done properly, is not done at all.’
THIS IS WHY we think the outcome of the elections may likely be considered null and void if the aggrieved party further pursues the matter in court.
