-as Dr. Whapoe requests cancellation of presidential runoff

The National Elections Commission through its magisterial office in Monrovia will today, November 1, 2023, begin hearing into complaint filed by the Vision for Liberian Transformation Party (VOLT) over alleged electoral fraud, and misapplication of elections law, leading to its defeat.

The decision by the NEC to hear the case followed VOLT National Chairman and Vice Standard Bearer, Mr. Erashmus D. Fahnbulleh's complaint filed on October 25, 2023, to the NEC magistrate, alleging that there were misapplications of the Elections Law that negatively impacted its performance.

"Therefore, and in view of the foregoing, the complainant prays your honorable commission to take cue of exhibit C1 and C3 attached to the complaint and acknowledge its applicability, order a cancellation of these elections and refrain from further conducting any election until this issue is resolved and also grant unto the complainant all further relief that your honorable commission will deem just and legal", Mr. Fahnbulleh's communication to NEC reads.

According to the complainant, during the October 10th poll, its party's name and logo were removed and replaced with the Grassroots Development Movement (GDM), another political party also represented on the ballot.

The complainant argues that the party's acronym VOLT, is registered with the NEC, and not the Grassroots Development Movement (GDM) as was placed on the ballot paper on October 10, 2023, adding that even though upon notice of this anomaly, they wrote the NEC, protesting and informing the Commission but it allegedly did nothing to address the problem.

"As a result of such irreversible error, it caused us to lose significant votes, for most of our partisans who attempted to, and those who voted and could not locate the acronym VOLT, which should have been placed immediately before the checkbox as was in the case of all the other contestants", the party contends. Editing by Jonathan Browne