Liberia: LPP Wants Lofa By-Election Result Investigated 

The Liberian Peoples’ Party (LPP) has called for an immediate investigation of vote tallies from the senatorial by-election of Lofa County announced by the National Election Commission (NEC).

According to a press release from the party, the vote tallied by the NEC is conflicting, consisting of discrepancies. The electoral body’s July 1 press conference announced independent candidate Joseph Jallah as the winner of the Lofa County by-election, obtaining 22,019 votes, which represented 36.46 percent of the valid votes; while his main rival, Galakpai Kortimai of the Unity Party (UP), trailed by less than a thousand votes. 

The election came as the result of former Defense Minister Samukai, who won the Senate Seat in December 2020, being disqualified by the Supreme Court due to criminal charges leveled against him. 

The LPP said in its release that after a careful review of what was published on the NEC website, they observed several discrepancies which they believe undermine the credibility of the result and expose the institutional inefficiency of the country’s electoral body, something they consider as a direct threat to the electoral mandate.


The party, in its press release, noted discrepancies for vote count at precinct 21025 – Foya Market hall, a total voters’ turnout of 2,536 as reported, while the summation of the total valid and invalid votes stands at 1,142 voters with a difference between the voters’ turnout and the total valid and invalid votes there as 1,394. 

At  precinct 21070 — Manticora Town hall, a total voter turnout of 1,515 was reported, while the summation of the total valid and invalid votes stands at 567 voters with the difference between the voters’ turnout and the total valid and invalid votes there as 948.
 
Also at precinct 21046 — according to the release, the Worsongar Public School, a total voters’ turnout of 1,570 is reported, while the summation of the total valid and invalid votes stands at 622 voters with the difference between the voters’ turnout and the total valid and invalid votes there as 948.
 
The release further noted that at precinct 21049 — Kamalah Town hall, a total voters’ turnout of 512 was reported, while the summation of the total valid and invalid votes stands at 155 voters with the difference between the voters’ turnout and the total valid and invalid votes there as 357 and among other polling centers.
In addition to these incomprehensible discrepancies, the Party said, “we also notice disparities in the number of registered voters on the print preview page of the results from the Commission’s website and the actual pages that are displayed upon opening results by polling places on the websites,”. 

At the same time, the party said that it would inform the Commission that a simple Facebook post indicating an attempt to hack the NEC website is inadequate and does not deal with the institutional inadequacy of the Commission or by extension alleviate the fear of distrust in the Commission’s ability to hold free, fair, and transparent election come 2023. 

Meanwhile, the LPP in its press release called on political parties especially those of the opposition to join in demanding the total cleaning of the National Voters Roll and all election data that are relevant to 2023 and all future elections.