THE NATIONAL ELECTIONS Commission (NEC), last week, declared Madam Geraldine Doe-Sheriff the undisputable winner of the run-off of the Montserrado County Senatorial By-Election. The first round election, which paraded ten contenders, ended with an inevitable impasse. The run-off was therefore a constitutional requirement to break that impasse.

LOOKING BACK, WE think it was a useful exercise to test the waters of, remove the stumbling debris, and perfect electioneering politics in postwar Liberia. We therefore say Hooray! to Senator Doe-Sheriff and we commend her for achieving yet another accolade for gender equity and for helping to maintain the sanctity of the polls as decider of leadership in this nation - a nation, which had gained notoriety for divisive politics taking on the forms of caucus, ethnic, class, and nepotism. There is no gainsaying that to a certain extent this election has strengthened the hands of electioneering politics in Liberia - that it has sent an unspoken caveat to politicians that political ambition must have its foundation in sustained relevant constituency building and nurturing rather than in the fame or exploits of political institutions. As a Liberian adage puts it, it has taught that to succeed one must wash one's stomach while supporters wash his or her back.

AS WE CONGRATULATE and welcome the new Montserrado County senator into the folds of legislative politics, we think it is in the interest of the nation's peace and political reconciliation agenda to reflect soberly on what transpired. The government, NEC, and political parties need to examine and critique the roles they played or failed to play, the assumptions and utterances they made, and the leadership role they played or failed to play in the period between November 10 and 24, 2009. This is important because we agree with those who say the by-election was not only a referendum on the progress and failures of the Sirleaf Administration but that it was also a litmus test for poll sanctity and the independence of NEC as the nation prepares for general and presidential elections in 2011. There is so much upon which to reflect, analyze, and make reforming decision for the advancement of this nation.

BUT THESE APPEAR foremost and fundamental: How does the government plan to sustain NEC, to enable it conduct sustained civil and voter education and acquire modern poll equipment, without having to make do at the mercy and discretion of donors and friendly governments? How political institutions and independent candidates help avoid run-off elections, considering NEC's shaky financial position and noted voters' apathy with second-round voting? What lesson can the opposition learn about the significance of ideology and party strength from the disgraceful tumult of an opposition solidarity we saw in the days and hours leading to the November 24 run-off? Note what Eugene Nagbe, an official of CDC, said about the run-off: "We did all we had to do to win. We collaborated with people of like minds because it is normal in politics, when you have people with similar ideology, they come together, put their resources together they get the needed result." We think this statement is instructive and provides some useful lead.

THEREFORE, WE SAY "Bravo!" to it, guardedly though. If that is so; if it takes a snap of the fingers to gather like ideological forces in other to win a single electoral seat, assuming that no non-political factor played an instinctive role in the spontaneous support for CDC in the run-off involving the incumbency, then there should be no problem of crowded political playing field. The question then is, why are they not harnessing the ideologies into a grassroots opposition bloc to address the problem of cash-intensive run-offs, eliminate the widespread ethnic and class rivalries that are no doubt countercurrents to the progress of Liberia's democracy and electioneering politics? Why crowd the political playing field and confuse the electorates thereby necessitating voting along ethnic and class lines minus concerns for the challenges facing the nation, only to build haphazard bubble alliances during run-offs for the sake of grabbing power at "all costs"? How does it benefit the opposition; and, considering elections as a crucial part of the peace process, how does it benefit the nation when its highly splintered political opposition comes together only to fight the ruling party and, shortly after that, darts each back into a cocoon, locked back in the modes of in-fighting, conspiracy, and vain cross-carpeting? Why? What does anyone or the nation gains from this superficial approach to the nation's reconciliation process, successful, recurrent elections being pivotal to that process than the combined total of all other efforts?

THE FINAL POINT of reflection is this. While there is no question about the by-election being a referendum on the progress of the Sirleaf Administration, isn't it a crucial and instructive high time that it is also considered a referendum on the continued existence of some political parties and indirectly the Congress for Democratic Change, which controls both Houses of the National Legislature? If the as some say the election indicated that the Sirleaf Administration has failed the Liberian people, and if the National Legislature is one branch of government that has overbearing oversight in the administration's economic and development policies, then should there be any doubt that CDC bears equal responsibility for Liberia's lack of progress. Is it not therefore a challenge to CDC supporters or politically unattached voters to be wary about rewarding the party under the current situation? We think it is a challenge. This has to happen unless the CDC majority in parliament shows that it is in the interest of the people. In our view, the benchmarks must be the passage of the Code of Conduct Bill, the adjustment and passage of the Threshold Bill, the blocking of the summary passage of the four Forest Management bills passed hastily recently by the lower house of parliament, and the passage of the Information Bills.

THE BY-ELECTION has revealed a number of problems and it is only wise for each player in the electoral process to take a pick, where it seems lighter and affordable, in order to make the next polls less rancorous.