10 November 2009
editorial
The Montserrado County senate race is grabbing national attention as the list grows and aspirants become louder, provocative, and calculating. As the list grows and become diverse so also do latent tensions amongst and between old rivals poke their ugly heads through the cracks of political intolerance, tribal bigotry, and subterfuge. The Montserrado County Senatorial By-Election, which started as a low-key, non-eventful, ordinary political exercise is slowing becoming a tempest in a teapot. Lest we be suspected of wishing violence upon the event since there currently is no visible incident of public rivalry, which suspicion is not hard for some people to hold against the Media, we want to concede that thus far the race for Montserrado senator is moving along smoothly festering underneath though it may appear.
But that should not mean that the government of Liberia, the National Elections Commission (NEC) and the various contesting political parties should not keep their ears to the ground for contentious signs. It does not mean that the rest of the crew should go to sleep because the captain says the sea is calm even though there is some ruffling of the wind at the aft. We are not sleeping and we have picked up a few warning signs of the gathering political storm. Several opposition political commentators and rally speakers are mincing no words in stating how they evaluate the upcoming by-elections. Foreign Minister Lewis Brown called it a "referendum" and "precursor" to the 2011 general and presidential that announces the advent of the alternative leadership of the opposition. "It is our time; the election is a referendum for both the ruling party and the opposition," Mr. Brown said in a statement last week. It is not only Lewis Brown who will see the falling of the senate slate to the opposition as evidence of a free and fair election since most opposition figures believe NEC needs reform so badly that as it stands, it cannot be a fair referee. Then there is the case of those who think certain candidates (with war backgrounds but already approved by NEC notwithstanding) are ineligible to hold public office on account of the controversial determinations of the yet-to-be formalized and adopted Final (unedited) Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia (TRC).
Mind you, this entire hullabaloo, grappling at non-legal grounds for candidate rejection, and drawing lines in the sand about it being the time of the political opposition to lead the nation's political machinery, lest the outcome of the election be considered rigged, is about a single senatorial seat left vacant by a deceased member of the Liberian Senate who represented the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) and Montserrado County. Other such by-elections, such as that for River Gee County, came and went without the clamors of a rat-race. And many more will come. We have no doubt that when NEC is brought to the bridge of electoral contentions, rejections, and allegations of partiality and favoritism, it will cross it: for, what about a county-city election that a nationwide election commission cannot handle? Granted NEC has the capacity. But it is this very coming to the bridge before strategizing on how to cross it that we fear more than the political buzzing and contentions that we are hearing in the grapevines through flowery political speeches political buzzing and contentions that we are hearing through rhetoric that serve only to stir up the pent-up anger, suspicion, and fighting egos of unsuspecting Liberians just as war cries and slogans lured many young Liberians onto ever-stretching battlefields of death without honor or gain.
Again we concede that we are not prophets, that we can be wrong in our assessment of what seems the gathering storm of political rivalry, but the spectacle of the government, NEC, and the leadership of political parties resting on their oars and waiting to come to the bridge before crossing it, we fear most. It is in this regards that we suggest that the following steps, which could be used in other by-elections or even in the general and presidential elections of 2011 and beyond must be put into place immediately. Political institutions in the country must hold discussions on where they stand on the independence and impartiality of NEC prior to going to the polls. The place of the TRC report regarding the recommended 30-year ban on politicians suspected of supporting the Liberian war must be made clear and accepted by all. The government must support and provide additional funding, if it has not already done so, to NEC to launch a crack-public education campaign that will disabuse the minds of voters about the platitude of vote rigging by favored candidates and establish in the place of fear endangered by fear-mongers a belief in the sanctify of NEC as a fair and impartial referee of the nation's political evolution and development.
We close the list of things to do by demanding from the Liberian people, especially those eligible to vote in the pending elections, to be tolerant of the political views and choices of those with whom they differ; we demand the understanding that lost elections are not always rigged elections; we demand also the understanding that the size of a political rally does not automatically translate into poll victory the rally happy-go-lucky often outnumber the actual qualified voters or admissible ballots cast. We demand that law and order prevail; for, it is only when order reigns, that election irregularities can be contained or tracked for redress. A very good pre-poll voter and civic education is an undisputable precursor to a free, fair, and noiseless election outcome. We want no repeat of the incident that followed the 2005 runoff elections. Remember the international community cannot continue to bail us out of the backlashes of our own inactions when we stare potential danger in the face and fold our hands in perpetual prayers for Divine intervention. Otherwise, good luck.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Analyst. 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.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
