The National Election Commission has released preliminary results of the Montserrado County Senatorial By- election from 33 centers

At a news conference last night at the Commission's headquarters in Sinkor, NEC Chairman, Cllr. James Framoyan announced that Clemenceau Urey of the ruling Unity Party topped the first phase of the election results with 1,449 votes(36.3%), followed by Geraldine Doe-Sheriff of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change(CDC) with 1,257 votes (31.5%).

Cllr. Framoyan also announced Wednesday night that the Alliance for Peace and Democracy (APD) Candidate, Prof. Wilson Tarpeh has obtained 708 votes, amounting to 17.8 %. Liberty Party (LP) Candidate, Dairus Dillon obtained a total vote of 247, which constitutes 6.2 %. Independent Candidate, Prof. Alhaji G.V.Kromah accumulated 191 votes, which amounts to 4.8 %, while independent candidate Jacqueline Capehart got 44 votes, putting her at 1.1 %.

Others include independent candidate, Grace Kpan who received 40 votes, constituting 1.0% of the total votes cast from the 33 centers. Candidate Jasper Ndaborlor of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) obtained a total vote of 33, giving him 0.8 %. Daniel Johnson, an independent candidate obtained 13 votes, equivalent to 0.3% from the 33 polling centers and Nathaniel Toe also an independent candidate obtained three(3) votes, equal to 0.1% .

The NEC Chairman said the total valid vote from the 33 centers is 3,987, invalid votes were 51; total vote cast at the 33 centers is 4,038.

At the same time, Commissioner Framoyan has disclosed that there was no violence in all the 280 voting precincts across the 14 electoral districts in the county, and that counting commenced on schedule.

He said there were extensions in time for some polling places owing to the late arrival of ballot papers. He said this was due to the default of some personnel of the Liberia National Police who did not report to their assigned polling places on time to provide security. weahtoe@yahoo.com