Major donors and democratic institutions across the globe described the 2005 post-war presidential and legislative elections as the freest, fairest, and most democratic in Liberia's 158 years of electioneering.

The elections were organized and run by the National Elections Commission (NEC). Since then, these partners in Liberia's democratization process had been working frantically to upgrade and strengthen NEC for the 2011 general and presidential elections and things seemed to be moving smoothly.

But CDC's executive member Milton Teahjay believes there is more to the commission's progress than meet the ordinary eye and he has been speaking out on this and a number of other issues with admonition. The Analyst has been finding what is amiss.

Former Liberia's Deputy Information Minister and Executive of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), J, Milton Teahjay, says the most credible and larger opposition political parties in Liberia would be reluctant to participate in the 2011 general and presidential elections.

According to him, this is most likely unless the National Elections Commission (NEC) is significantly restructured with opposition parties' involvement to enhance its credibility.

He says with Mr. James Fromoyan and what he called "UP operatives and die-hards" at the helm of NEC, going into national elections would be to facilitate another international appointment of a President without domestic legitimacy and broad-based support to undertake substantive national reconstruction programs. He did not elaborate.

The CDC executive made the assertions and issued the admonition over the weekend when he appeared on Truth FM/TV with Presidential Press Secretary, Cyrus Badio and Assistant Minister-designate for International Organizations at the Foreign Ministry Alphonso Nimely.

He said the political association of NEC's national chairman, James Fromoyan, with and loyalty to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf over the years makes him particularly ineligible to referee a national competitive exercise without infusing his personal bias.

Mr. Teahjay then predicted that except for "briefcase opposition political parties that are already in the financial pockets of the Unity Party", the largest opposition parties in the country were not likely to submit themselves to elections with the current configuration of the National Election Commission.

He branded the recent saga between the Elections Commission and the Liberty Party a political persecution intended to silence one of the credible components of the opposition bloc.

Of the 22 registered political parties in the country, he claimed, only one party, the Unity Party supports Fromoyan chairmanship of NEC. The reason, he claimed further, was that President Sirleaf was guaranteed re-election only when Fromoyan and the cohorts are at the National Elections Commission run the affairs of the commission without the input of opposition political parties.

Responding to Teahjay's charges of the potential for gross partiality of the National Elections Commission under Mr. Fromoyan, Presidential Press Secretary Cyrus Badio cautioned him against making sweeping allegations against one entity simply because of disagreement with its leader.

He said there was no evidence to indicate that Mr. Fromoyan had been partial in the past and there is no reason to believe that he would be partial in the future.

For his part, Assistant Foreign Minister Designate Alphonso Nimely said if Mr. Fromoyan was so discredited as claimed by Mr. Teahjay, why CDC Senators in the Liberian Senate did not voted to prevent him from being chairman of the National Elections Commission.

Mr. Nimely said although he respected Mr. Teahjay's rights to offer an opinion on any aspect of the government, he is concerned about the likelihood of his comments manifesting themselves in post- or pre-election violence in Liberia as was the case in Kenya recently.

Regarding the surge of armed robbery in the country, the CDC Executive repeated his warning on the eve of last Decoration Day that Liberia was drifting into a gangster's paradise under Mr. Sirleaf only because she and her immediate family were safe at night and the rest of the citizenry is left to perform vigilante functions to ensure personal security.

He then called for the immediate arming of the National Police to curb the upsurge of gangsterism in the country, terming "as inherently paradoxical" what he called the United Nations' refusal to arm the national police after recruiting, vetting and training the very police.

The CDC executive accused President Sirleaf of paying lip service to the issue of armed robbery in the country simply because, he claimed, she was enjoying state security protection.

"Mr. Sirleaf has met almost every major world leader and if she was serious about collective security, she should have made representation to Liberia's international partners to arm the state security," he said.

"The nation cannot be held hostage because of fear due to the behavior of security agents under previous administrations". On this point, Messrs Badio and Nimely reportedly agreed, noting that armed robbery was causing problems for the image of the government.

They noted that the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was to take larger responsibility for this problem because they are responsible for the security of Liberia, assisted by state security organs, currently undergoing restructuring.

Badio revealed that during Mrs. Sirleaf's recent visit to Britain, the British government agreed to train the Liberian police and after the promised training, arming of the police would be considered by the President.

As regards the issue of corruption and official misconduct on the part of some public officials in the Sirleaf administration, Mr. Teahjay labeled Liberia Petroleum Corporation's managing director, Mr. Harry Greaves, as the Prime Minister of corruption in the country who has done so with impunity under the canopy of what appears to be tacit presidential condemnation.

He said beside many shady oil deals and dubious contracts bordering on financial kick-backs in huge sums around the world, Greaves has not provided any credible justification for million of United States dollars in both paid and unpaid taxes through the LPRC.

He gave no examples of the "many shady oil deals" but charged further that Mr. Greaves was conducting himself as if he were a "pepper bush manager for Mrs. Sirleaf and the Unity Party".

It is not only Managing Director Greaves that drew the CDC's executive's scathing disparaging; Assistant Finance Minister for Debt Management and Expenditure, Ms Aletha Brown also did.

He branded the assistant finance minister for debt management and expenditure an "epitome of gross administrative misconduct in the country bordering criminality" and claimed that she "habitually encroaches on county payrolls and arbitrarily deletes names of county employees without reference to and without the involvement of the agencies for which those individuals work.

He cited a current situation involving Ms. Brown where he claimed "she arrogantly and unilaterally deleted 41 names from the Sinoe County Payroll under the pretext that those employees were ghosts."

Mr. Teahjay told his listening audience that upon hearing this, he shouldered the financial expenses to truck 41 Sinoe citizens to Monrovia to prove Ms. Brown wrong.

He explained further that at a meeting he requested with Finance Ministry officials Ms. Brown categorically denied involvement in the unauthorized deletion but promised to reinstate the names. But this, he said, she is yet to do.

Without examples, he further accused the finance official of continually victimizing ordinary local government employees who were unable to easily come to Monrovia to seek redress.

He recalled that it was Ms. Brown sometimes last year who ordered the "reckless withholding" of former President Moses Blah's allowances when he Teahjay had to directly confront her.

It is not clear whether Mr. Badio agreed with Mr. Teahjay's allegations, but he noted that it would be extremely regrettable if innocent employees in some of the leeward counties were victimized by that kind of decision-making. He was however quick to indicate that he would offer no opinion on the matter since he did not have the full picture.

He promised to get to the bottom of the case in an effort to secure a resolution, hinting that if he failed to prevail, he would brief the President for her to act. Mr. Nimely agreed, indicating that the denying of workers of their wages was a repeat of the practices of the past and should not be tolerated from any official of government.

He said Mr. Teahjay should have quickly reported the matter to the president because government officials were servants of the people, not their masters.

Meanwhile, Teahjay said two attempts to meet Deputy Minister Tarnue Marwolo and seek his intervention failed as Marwolo's office staffs said he was busy.