The Press Union of Liberia (PUL) is slated to go to its Congress and Elections beginning Thursday, November 17, 2022 leading to Saturday, November 19, 2022 in Gbarnga, Bong County. During the Congress pertinent issues are expected to be discussed by the PUL membership, leading to the elections that will bring the Charles Coffey’s leadership to its end.

However, one of PUL presidential candidates, Julius Kullie Kanubah Campaign Team has released a statement on the eve of departure calling on its supporters and sympathizers to stay put until they are informed to leave for Gbarnga.

Team Kanubah had for weeks registered several concerns concerning a bloated Voters’ Roll, which is derived from the PUL membership roster. They have called for it be cleaned, but according to the statement, no final official list has been released by the Congress Committee.

It can be recalled in 2019, similar concerns were raised by former PUL Vice President Octavin Williams Campaign Team when he was seeking the PUL presidency. The failure of the Coffey administration to clean the Voters’ Roll led to a legal battle, only in the end for Coffey and his team to ignore a Bill of Information and go ahead with a fraudulent election, which of course Team Octavin withdrew from the election.

It is unclear whether similar path will be followed by Team Kanubah to institute legal action or he will withdraw and found part of a fraudulent process.

See below the full statement issued by Team Kanubah for PUL President

“Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, fellow colleagues, and Comrade Leaders.

It is a pleasure seeing and speaking with you all today.

We have called you to address some fundamental issues regarding the 2022 Congress of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL).

The Congress of the PUL is a Constitutional necessity, required every three years. Article 10 of the PUL Constitution, running from Section 1 through Section 9 articulate the functions, roles, responsibilities, structures and schedule of the Congress. Section 2 of Article 10 states that, “Congress shall meet in the second week of November every three years for not less than one day and not more than three days knowing full well that the last day of Congress shall be the second Saturday of November.”

The current leadership of Charles Coffey and Daniel Nyakonah has been struggling to convene the 2022 Congress of our Union.

Just last week, the Coffey–Nyakonah leadership unilaterally postponed the Congress, using the publicly declared National Census Day (Friday) as an alibi.

This postponement was done without our input as leading candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency of our Union.

Notwithstanding, the Coffey – Nyakonah leadership, through Musa Kanneh, released a statement falsely claiming that as candidates, we were consulted. That was and is a blatant lie by the Coffey – Nyakonah leadership along with Musa Kanneh.

In postponing the Congress, it was announced that this week, from 17 to 19 November, the Congress would be held.

Key to the convening of any Congress of the PUL is the Membership Register since the Congress, as “the supreme decision-making body of the UNION”, brings together “the entire membership.”

As of this press conference today, the outgoing Coffey – Nyakonah leadership has failed to produce and publish any credible Membership Register of the PUL for 2022, despite occupying and serving the Union for nine (9) solid years.

Their failure is similar to the ugly situation of 2019, which, based on a fraudulent Membership Register, led to a rigged electoral process even before the day of voting; thereby producing an illegitimate leadership.

In the face of the repeated systematic violations of the Constitution of the PUL in relation to the convening of the 2022 Congress by the Coffey – Nyakonah leadership, we would like to again inform and urge all our supporters, members of the Press Union of Liberia, and those interested in the democratic development of the PUL and Liberia to stay put and stay clear of any and all activities surrounding the 2022 PUL Congress.

Staying put and staying clear of the Congress means, please do not venture going to Gbarnga as yet, as doing so, would amount to condoning and crowning an illegitimate process, characterized by fraud and being orchestrated by what is revealing itself to be a network of fraudsters.

There are several germane issues we have flagged out regarding the 2022 PUL Congress:

First, the membership registration was characterized by irregularities amounting to fraud.

Second, the Membership Committee, which is a permanent/standing committee of our Union, has not officially published the Final Membership Register of 2022. What was published under the signature of the Membership Committee Chair, Ms. Fabine Kwiah, was the provisional Membership Register.

Third, we have seen the release of several membership listing since 07 October. One listing had a membership of 1,372; followed by a list of 1,410, and an addendum of 36.

Fourth, the latest Membership Register or what is being referred to as the Voter Roll was released on 13 November 2022 under the signatures of Carolyn Myers-Zoduah, Chairperson of the 2022 PUL Congress Committee, and Attorney-at-Law Ade Wede Kekuleh, Chairperson of the 2022 PUL Elections and Inauguration Committee.

Unlike the previous provisional membership registers, the current register or voter roll has a total of 1,426 persons. We do not know how this number was produced and how the number increased over time. Yet these persons listed are deemed as Full Members of our Union, meaning they are considered as eligible to participate in the 2022 PUL Congress and to vote in the Union 2022 elections.

Disturbingly, however, we have found that the Voter Roll (Membership Register) has not been disaggregated in line with Article 10 Section 7 of the PUL Constitution.  Article 10 Section 7 states that: “The Membership Committee, with the approval of the PUL leadership, shall publish in not less than two local dailies registered members of the Union not later than 30 days before Congress. Lists of all registered members of the Union shall be disaggregated into categories of membership; males and females; due paying and non-due paying (delinquent) members; editors, reporters, etc.” Article 4 Section 1 spells out the Membership Categories of the Union. It says, (i) Full Membership of the PUL shall be granted to Liberian journalists who hold degree(s) in journalism or mass communication from a recognized institution and have practiced for two years. (ii) Full membership shall also be granted journalist with degree(s) in any other discipline who have practiced for a minimum of three years. (iii) Full Membership shall also be granted to journalist who have practiced for five years with recognized and accredited media institutions, employed by or freelancing with either electronic or print media institutions.”

Troublingly also, we have found that the current Voter roll (Membership Register) is flooded with non-journalists and individuals who have not met the eligibility criteria to hold Full Membership of our Union. But also, the Fabine Kwiah Membership Committee is not aware of the latest Voter Roll.

Fifth, in releasing the new Membership Register, the names of several eligible journalists, media workers and communication professional who have expressed their unflinching support to us, have been removed without due process. This an act intended to disenfranchise and suppress legitimate members of the PUL.

But also, we have the case of several journalists whose ID cards have been seized by the PUL leadership because these journalists are deemed to be supporters of us and desirous for change.

Considering the above points and the repeated ignoring of our calls for an independent panel to audit the 2022 Membership Register of the PUL, we would like our supporters and members of the PUL to remain where they are until they can hear from us on the next steps.

We should say we are exploring all available avenues to ensure the right thing is done in the interest of our Union.

To this end, we call on relevant civil society organizations including the Elections Coordinating Committee (ECC) as well as the National Elections Commission to intervene by prevailing on the Coffey – Nyakonah leadership to do the right thing by refraining from hosting an illegitimate Congress.

We are also asking the National Elections Commission (NEC) not to participate in facilitating the 2022 PUL Elections as doing so would amount to an assault on the democratic process and to condoning acts of fraud in the PUL which should be a democratic institution.

Thank you!”