The Supreme Court of Liberia ruled late Thursday afternoon that it had not been presented with enough evidence of fraud or other irregularities to annul the results of the October 10election. It ordered the National Election Commission (NEC) to schedule the run-off election between presidential candidates George Weah and Joseph Boakai. Weah and Boakai were the first and second place vote getters in the October 10 election, but neither obtained the required simple majority of the votes required by Liberia’s Constitution. Of the total vote cast, Weah recorded 38.4 percent, while Boakai received 28.8 percent. The Liberty Party, whose presidential candidate received 9.6 percent of the vote, filed its complaint on October 23 with the NEC alleging fraud. The party called on the NEC to annul the October 10 results and order a rerun. The Supreme Court first intervened on November 6 when it issued an order prohibiting the NEC from proceeding with the run-off election before deciding the Liberty Party complaint, which was joined-in by Boakai’s Unity Party. The decision today allows the NEC to proceed with the run-off which could occur within two-weeks. Reuters – Liberia Court Clears Way for Election FPA – Court Cites Insufficient Evidence
Four of the five Supreme Court Justices joined the majority opinion delivered by Associate Justice Philip Banks before a packed courtroom and heard over nationwide radio. In reading the Court’s decision, Justice Banks highlighted the arguments of the two appellants, the Liberty and Unity parties, and the responses of the NEC. The Court recognized, he said, that the appellants had shown irregularities and potential instances of fraud at certain polling sites. Banks also said that the Court recognized that there were problems with final voters list called the Final Registration Roll (FRR). The NEC had not posted the FRR at polling sites or at magistrate offices as required by Section 3.6 of Liberia’s Election Law. Justice Banks stated that simply giving electronic access to the FRR through the internet did not meet this legal requirement. Hard copies must be made available for public access at the polling centers, he said.
The Court, said Banks, acknowledged evidence of problems at specific voting sites and with the FRR. Nevertheless the Court’s majority found that the Liberty Party and Unity Party did not present evidence to show that these violations “permeated the entire election spectrum”. “In the absence of sufficient evidence, the court cannot order a re-run of the election,” Justice Philip Banks said, reading out the court’s decision. Banks noted that, other than the two political parties alleging fraud and irregularities, there were no individual voters who formally complained to the NEC about being deprived of their right to vote. The Court “acknowledged non-compliance” with the law but there is no evidence, Banks said, that its impact met the threshold for annulling the election. “There were over 5,000 polling places… to present evidence of just a few is problematic,” Justice Banks said. “The evidence should have shown that they were committed in such magnitude that they could have altered the results.”
Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh delivered a dissenting opinion. He disagreed with the Court’s majority ruling believing that the failure to properly post the FRR, discrepancies between versions of the FRR and the evidence presented about polling site violations did meet the threshold for annulling the election.
In closing the proceedings, Justice Banks admonished the NEC to effectively carry out the run-off election in compliance with the law. He ordered the NEC to post the FRR after cleaning-up any duplicates, post hard copies at all voting centers and magistrate offices, not add any addendums to the FRR except those allowed by the NECs regulations and manuals, prohibit voters from voting where there are not registered and from voting if not on the FRR. Justice Banks urged NEC officials from speaking about matters of politics in public announcements or showing any other bias.
The next challenge for Liberia is setting the election date and quickly preparing for the election. Today’s ruling means that the NEC must focus on cleaning up its registered voter’s lists and ensuring hard copies are posted at polling centers.
The Supreme Court proceedings today can be viewed on You Tube at Supreme Court Ruling Dec 7 The Court’s Decision should be posted soon at the judiciary of Liberia’s website. The National Election Commission will be announcing the date of the run-off election on the NEC Website.