Abuja - Nigeria — The President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency James Victor Gbeho has commended Liberians for their high sense of patriotism by exercising their constitutional right in the Tuesday 8th November 2011 presidential run-off election. "It is obvious that people turned out to vote despite the disruption on the eve of the balloting. Obviously not as high as in the first round of 11 October 2011, but that was also partly because the first round had involved 16 presidential contenders and candidates for Senatorial and National House of Representatives seat," President Gbeho told journalists after monitoring balloting in some polling centres and the tallying of votes at one of the centres in Monrovia on Tuesday.
The call by the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) on its members to boycott the presidential run-off resulted in a street violence around the party headquarters on Monday with at least one casualty and injury to several others. The ECOWAS President described Monday's incident as "regrettable and disappointing," noting that election boycott has never provided a viable solution to political disagreement. "At the end of the day Liberians have spoken with their ballots and we will hear their voice in the result of the polls," he added. President Gbeho reiterated ECOWAS' commitment to work with partners to raise the level of political education and advocacy in the region to ensure that political leaders recognized that "there is life after losing an election and that in every election there must be a winner and a loser." "We have to build and consolidate democracy in our region. We wish Liberia well and we all want the country to regain its past glory but this cannot happen through internecine conflicts, it is through peaceful co-existence, national unity and reconstruction," he added.
Expressing the same sentiment, the head of the ECOWAS 200-member Election Observation Mission Professor Attahiru Jega, who also monitored balloting and counting of votes in a number of polling stations in Monrovia, commended Liberians for their orderly and peaceful conduct on Tuesday. "No doubt, the disruption of Monday might have created some apprehension, but as the day went by more people turned out to vote and we saw a determination and commitment of Liberian voters to exercise their constitutional right," Professor Jega affirmed. According to Liberia's National Elections Commission, the first round ballot produced no outright winner and in accordance with country's constitutional provisions, the run-off was to have been between the two frontrunners - incumbent President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and the CDC flag bear Mr Winston Tubman.
But the CDC leadership on the eve of the election called on the party supporters to boycott the exercise, alleging fraud in the electoral process. The ECOWAS Observation Mission is expected to issue a Preliminary Declaration on the presidential run-off on Wednesday 8th November 2011.
