|
|
Liberia: Improve Political System, Deputy UN Envoy Urges
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The NEWS (Monrovia)
24 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Monrovia
The Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General (DSRSG) for Rule of Law, Ms. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu recently told a gathering of political party representatives and civil society that the 2005 general and presidential elections was a defining moment in Liberia's political process.
"To sustain this achievement, it is imperative that all political institutions and structures of the democratic process, including political party system, are able to function effectively to advance national democratic experience," she said.
In order to ensure a strong, vibrant and participatory political party system in Liberia, the Deputy UN envoy encouraged an "inclusive approach towards fostering national reconciliation and inter-party cooperation," adding, "it is important that we sustain efforts at breaking away from the legacy of exclusionary processes/policies towards inclusive and participatory democracy in this new dispensation."
Former Interim President of Liberia and current Chairman of Liberia's Governance Commission, Dr. Amos Sawyer, said political parties must be more than a vehicle to promote personal ambitions.
"They must consist of a group of people organized around a set of ideas that will promote a vision of a society that we will want to see; those ideas will be drawn upon for the organization of programs; and we must have a commitment to develop strategies for the implementation of these programs," he pointed out.
The Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States Embassy in Liberia, Ms. Brooks Robinson, said the workshop is timely because Liberia has put its foot on the path of electoral democracy with a strong separation of power and a strong protection for the freedom of speech.
"There is still much to do in order to consolidate those democratic gains; we made a start and there is a need to keep building," she told the participants.
She expressed optimism that the workshop will pave the way for the parties to play an even greater role in contributing to Liberia's democratic transformation.
|
In December 2007, a consortium of six political parties including the Congress for Democratic Change, the Liberia Action Party, the Unity Party, the National Democratic Party of Liberia, and the National Patriotic Party requested UNMIL's assistance in developing national laws and policies aimed at sustaining the democratic process.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The NEWS. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
