The Executive Director of the Liberia Democratic Institute (LDI), Dan Saryea, has called for the immediate reform of the National Elections Commission (NEC) and its membership for the sake of peace in Liberia.
He told The Analyst in an exclusive interview this week that the NEC and its operations are illegitimate and unconstitutional within the frameworks of both the electoral laws and the Constitution of Liberia, amongst others.
He said the reforms are necessary because NEC’s existence, operations, nomenclature and membership are illegal, illegitimate, unconstitutional as well as serving as potential recipe for political crisis in the very near future in our society.
Mr. Saryea has however acknowledged what he termed as ‘the very good job well done by NEC since 2005 elections’, but was quick to note that it was vital to equally reflect and look at the nomenclature of the commission, its legal and constitutional frameworks.
He said it is necessary to do so now because successive national politics and electoral politics around the Globe are producing very dangerous outcomes, especially in Kenya where over one thousand five hundred people lost their lives over electoral dissatisfaction as well as the current trend of electoral activities ongoing in the South African state of Zimbabwe among others.
He said in Liberia, we must learn from the experience of other countries that are striving to promote democratic tenets and he thinks doing this without reflecting on the current electoral commission will be unfair and incomplete.
Under the current electoral and constitutionals laws, Mr. Saryea revealed that what we have now is illegal, illegitimate within the frameworks of the electoral laws of Liberia.
According to him, electoral laws chapter #2 provides that the NEC shall be comprise of five members, contrary, he noted the NEC has seven commissioners instead of five, adding, “this is breach of the constitution, particularly after three years of transitional period where the country returned to status quo now.
He said Liberians must now begin to make sure that the election commission conforms to constitutional provisions.
The LDI Boss’ second bone of contention with the NEC Mr. Saryea said, under the act that created the Commission, the NEC must be referred to as Elections Commission (ECOM), but contrarily, he noted we've a national Election Commission (NEC) which came about as a result emergency period that we had.
He said President Sirleaf had even gone ahead to restructure the commission based on the fact that the transitional period or transitional mandate has ended and the commission still failed operate in fulfillment of the organic laws of the country.
“if the President was successful to have restructured the commission, leaving out other fundamental parts like the membership, nomenclature inline with constitution is a constitutional breach which then makes the current NEC illegitimate and unconstitutional”.
He said it is only prudent to have election commission that will reflect the character of genuine independence, not independent in the way somebody will define it but rather an independence in a way that the vast majority of the people will be very comfortable, see balance in the nomenclature, the process of constituting the election commission.
“That is why we think we need to make sure that we scale up our engagements with the commission, the legislature, the Liberian people so that a radical reform is carried out within the current NEC.
The NEC worked over the period but that doesn’t provide the justification to have an unconstitutional election commission still operating and handling the affairs of making sure that Liberia advances in democracy.
"We think, considering these factors, we think the current commission must be reformed and the NEC operation does not reflect its constitutional mandate and requirement", he averred.
Church Aids Farmers
The Church Aid Incorporated (CAI) of the New Water in the Desert Assembly (NWIDA) in Brewerville says it has about several hundreds of agricultural seeds ready for to be offered to farmers in the country.
The CAI which is part of the Apostolic Pentecostal Church (APC) International made the seeds available for the farmers during the time Liberians are faced with looming food crisis and stringent economic conditions in our postwar society.
Making the disclosure yesterday in a press release, the unidentified project management of CAI, urged farmers across the country to take advantage of the vegetable seeds available at the CAI’s offices located in Brewerville, outside Monrovia city.
CAI’s release encourages farmers to embrace the opportunity in order to sow seeds that will enable to fight hunger in Liberia. CAI said about a quarter of a million packs of seeds worth about a million United States Dollars are expected in Liberia within six weeks.
CAI urged farmers and potential farmers within the 15 sub-political divisions of Liberia to begin registering within CAI’s offices so as to benefit from the expected 14 varieties of seeds. CAI said the 14 the seeds are collards, okras, cabbage, pepper, watermelon, mustard, peas, eggplant, onion, cucumber, amongst others.
Of the quarter of a million vegetable seeds expected during planting season, CAI said, about 50,000 packets have already arrived in the country. CAI said that these seeds will include one hundred of 180,000 packs of beans, collard, cucumber, eggplant, cabbage, okra and watermelon combined.
CAI will manage project through two sub-programs identified as (1) general distribution (GD) to garget individual farmers and gardeners who will benefit from 80% of the seeds while the (2) Special Project (SP) constituting about 20% of seeds donated, will target schools, churches, religious and community-based groups, NGOs amongst others throughout the country.
The Church Aid will work along with her traditional and potential partners in the distribution of the seeds. Church Aid is the relief and development department of the New Water in the Desert Assembly (NWIDA) of the Apostolic Pentecostal Church International (APC) of Rev. Korto Browne |
