IPNews-Monrovia,Liberia-10 May 2018: The National Elections Commission (NEC), says it can not got ahead with the conduct of Senatorial by-elections created by the elections of two Previous Senators now President George M. Weah, former Montserrado County Senator and Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor, former Senator, Bong County respectively.
The Commission said since its plead for funding following the election and subsequent inauguration the government of Liberia has only made US$500,000 available for the holding of the Senatorial by-elections which runs contrary to earlier budget submitted by the National Elections Commission-NEC of US$2.7 million required to conduct two senatorial by-elections this year in Liberia.
The by-election which was scheduled to be held on last Tuesday, May 8, 2018, is in keeping with provision of the Liberian Constitution, but the extension now leads many wondering what next.
In keeping with Liberia’s elections laws, the polls for the holding of the by-election for Bong and Montserrado Counties , created due to the ascendency of President George Weah and Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor who served as Senators for those counties will now remain empty until the government decides to fund the NEC to go ahead with the conduct of the by-elections.
According to the NEC’s Chairman, Cllr. Jerome Korkoyah, the Commission was unable to conduct the by-election in the constitutional timeline due to the lack of finances.
He said a new date for the election would be determined by the Legislature but noted that the new date would not guarantee the conduct of the by-election unless adequate funding is made available.
Article 37 of the Constitution calls for by-election to be held 90 days after a vacancy is announced by the legislature.
Cllr. Korkoya: “We called you here today to say that it will not be possible to do the by-election in the constitutional time frame of 90 days. This is as the result of financial reasons. As you recall, the NEC earlier submitted a budget of US$3.9million for the conduct of by-elections in the two counties which account for 50% of voters in Liberia,”
“In elections, cost is driven by the total number of voters. The government through the Ministry of Finance claimed that that amount was high. We contacted the Legislature through the committees in both houses chaired by Senator Milton Teahjay and Representative Alex Grant and at the close of that meeting, we agreed to cut down some activities and so the final figure agreed between the government through the Ministry of Finance and the NEC is US$2.7million,” Korkoya disclosed.
Out of the US$2.7 million, the government informed NEC that they will provide US$1.8 million for election while donors have agreed to assist with US$500,000.
“As of today, we have received US$500,000 from the government and that is grossly inadequate to conduct the election because of the different positions and statements that were made when the budget was submitted, I want to inform you that more vendors are careful and do not want to pre-finance any of our activities particularly international procurement.”
So far, Cllr. Korkoya said, the NEC has used US$100,000 on the nomination of candidates process.
“We have done assessment of all of our polling places in Bong County and bought materials for the data center and did replacement of cards.
“The board has decided that given the financial situation, we open a special account where US$300,000 of the remaining US$400,000 will be deposited for election kits while the balance US$100,000 will be deposited into another special account for ballots which is the cheaper of the two,” Korkoya said.
Now, with the postponement of the by-elections for both Montserrado and Bong countries and continued difficult economic conditions prevailing in the country, Political observers are worried that the government might be headed into a constitutional crisis if nothing is done to remedy the impasse as there might be other seats created as the result of other unforeseen situation
