Liberia: Stay Home After You Vote

This Commentary is encouraging people to Stay Home on October 10, 2023 after they vote. This Stay Home action is important because it Saves Lives. The main work that Our Creator has given us is to Save Lives. The Saving of Lives is important in Liberia where the main societal problem of longstanding and widespread poverty has become the pretext for violence, that, at times, takes on the forms of coup d'etat and civil war, both of which have been experienced by the people of Liberia. Witness the recent coup d'etats in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, La Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Niger.

With our Mandate to Save Lives, it is most important to focus on how we can work together to Save Lives, especially when violence takes place before elections and violence takes place also after elections. The election in Liberia is to take place on October 10, 2023. Therefore, this Commentary is calling on all Liberians to Stay Home after they vote on October 10th. Let us remember that the election has not happened yet and that there is pre-election violence going on. Witness the disappearances, the mysterious deaths, the murders, the death threats, the rock-throwing on legal anti-corruption marchers and the mock burial parade in the main streets of Monrovia before the election of October 10th.

Under the leadership of the late Dr. Mary Nema Brownell,  Founding Chairperson of the Liberian Women Initiative (LWI), there was a successful call for Staying Home to push for Disarmament before Election. Although Election was held while disarmament did not take place, the call by LWI was helpful to prevent violence, when people who were dissatisfied with the election results wanted to take to the streets to protest. As most people in Monrovia stayed home, the street protest was insignificant and did not have a violent effect.

All of the pre-election violence is taking place in Liberia without any investigative results. In effect, there should be investigations, with results and the indicted ones processed for justice to be served through court action. However such action through the Rule of Law is not  happening. This Rule of Outlaw is at once disturbing and violence-oriented. Therefore, it must be stopped for injustice to end and Justice to prevail.  Here is an opportunity given to us by Our Creator to show locally and globally that the right thing can be done in Liberia.

How can the right thing be done in Liberia? The right thing can be done in Liberia when the people who love Liberia continue to raise awareness to motivate people to take action to transform the prevailing unfair electoral system into an enduring fair electoral system. It is only through this transformation that people with good records can get elected to bring justice, the indispensable ingredient for peace in Liberia and in any other country.