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Liberia: Elections Commission Raises Ridiculous Allegations, Liberty Party Claims
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The NEWS (Monrovia)
23 July 2008
Posted to the web 23 July 2008
Monrovia
The opposition Liberty Party has described as ridiculous comments by the National Elections Commission that the Party's leadership is unconstitutional and lacks legitimacy.
National Elections Commission Chairman James Flomoyan told a news conference Monday that the current leadership of the opposition Liberty Party is unconstitutional and lacks legitimacy.
Mr. Flomoyan indicated that Article 79(e) of the Liberian Constitution provides for an election of party officials at least once in six years.
Additionally, the NEC Boss claimed that the leadership of Liberty Party was instead handpicked by Cllr. Charles Brumskine, in contravention of the Constitution.
But the NEC Chairman comments have been rejected by the Liberty Party in a statement issued Tuesday.
The Liberty Party pointed out that Chairman Flomoyan is quite aware of the Party's compliance with the Constitution of Liberia, adding that LP's Constitution and Bylaws are filed with the NEC and provides in Article V (1) that "the National Convention is the highest decision making body of the Party and shall elect all national officers, adopt platform, policies, and programs of the Party."
The LP statement further explained that the National Convention shall meet once every six years, or six months before any scheduled national elections, whichever is more frequent.
"With regard to the Chairman's assertion that Cllr. Brumskine selected the current Chairman of Liberty Party, we ask the Chairman to review Article V, Section 2 of Liberty Party's Constitution and Bylaws, which provides that the Executive Council is the highest decision making body outside of the National Convention to fill vacancies created by resignation, incapacity or otherwise for nationally elected Party officers in the absence of the Convention," Liberty Party stated.
Additionally, the statement quoted the Party's constitution as saying that the Standard Bearer shall preside over all meetings of the Executive Council. In the absence of a Standard Bearer the National Chair shall preside over the Executive Council.
"Following the resignation of the Chairman and other national officers of Liberty Party, the Executive Council, presided over by the Standard Bearer, appointed the current Chairman and other national officers to fill the vacancies until our next National Convention. As the Chairman concedes, the decision and action of our Party were taken and filed with the NEC more than two years ago. And the Chairman and the entire NEC, in accordance with law, have continuously recognized and interacted with Chairman Israel Akinsanya, as the legally constituted and duly recognized head of Liberty Party," Liberty Party said.
The Party wondered why the National Elections Commission is now accusing it of violating the Constitution of Liberia.
"Why would the NEC of its own volition raise such ridiculous allegations against our Party? Is this an attempt to distract from the real issues facing our country?" Liberty Party asked.
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Meanwhile, the Chairman of Liberty Party Israel Akinsanya has called on President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to cooperate with his party and other major opposition parties in restructuring the NEC and amending the election laws thereby ensuring the establishment of an Election Court.
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