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Liberia: "NEC Becomes Unlawful" - LDI
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The Analyst (Monrovia)
26 April 2008
Posted to the web 28 April 2008
D. Sonpon Weah II
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.
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"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.
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