Liberia: Choking the Neck of NEC

By Togba-Nah Tipoteh

The neck of NEC (National Elections Commission) of Liberia needs to be choked to stop it from violating the Constitution of Liberia With the violation of the Constitution of Liberia, it is impossible to have any FAIR election in Liberia. 

Having any UNFAIR election leads to violence, that, at times, takes on the forms of coup d'etat and civil war, as already experienced in Liberia. NEC is up to its neck in violating the Constitution of Liberia. 

Here are some violations of the Constitution of Liberia by NEC: 1) allowing foreigners to vote in Liberia; 2) allowing Liberians registered in one County to vote in another County; 3) not allowing the candidacy of only Liberians; 4) allowing non-citizens to be Commissioners of NEC; 5) allowing violators of the Law to be candidates; 6) allowing personalized press  releases of NEC Commissioners to prevail; 7) allowing secret meetings between NEC Commissioners and other State entities; 8) allowing the buying of votes; 9) allowing personalized decisions of NEC Commissioners to determine NEC representatives at NEC polling booths;10) non-implementation of decisions by the Supreme Court of Liberia, and 11) allowing nepotism to prevail in NEC decision-making.

It is the experience with the coup d'etat and civil war in Liberia that has led the people of Liberia to conclude that they prefer Peace to War, as heard in their chant: We Want Peace! No More War!  From the coup d'etat in Liberia at least 200 people were killed and thousands suffered injuries. From the civil war in Liberia, at least 300,000 people were killed and thousands more were injured. 

There is a high likelihood that State regime-changing-violence could take place in Liberia once again because the conditions that lead to the related violence continue to exist. Few people are enjoying it while nearly everybody is suffering. 

Corruption has been declared by State management as Liberia's number one enemy but the number one State management friend of Liberia has placed sanctions on the State management of Liberia on account of State corruption. Surprisingly, the main foreign friend has given a budget support of US$106 million to Liberia recently and has done photo shoots with the top most government officials of Liberia. 

No wonder, the government of Liberia is saying that Liberia is heading in the Right Direction but the people of Liberia are saying that Liberia is headed in the Wrong Direction (Afrobarometer, 2021).

How can this "wonder" in Liberia come to an end? This "wonder" will come to an end when the people who love Liberia continue to work together to transform the UNFAIR electoral system into a FAIR electoral system. It is only through this transformation that persons with good records can get elected to install the system of Justice, the indispensable ingredient for bringing Peace and Progress to Liberia and any other Country.