Liberia: “NEC Is Compromised”

The Political Leader of the opposition Liberty Party (LP), Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, had said that  the National Elections Commission (NEC) of Liberia is not independent and it has no integrity.

The Grand Bassa County Senator accused the electoral body chairperson Davidetta Browne-Lansanah of being compromised and has lost its independence. 

"The NEC is an integrity institution, and its mandate is to ensure that elections conducted in Liberia are free, fair, transparent, and peaceful in upholding the fledgling Liberian democracy. However, Davidetta Browne-Lansanah, at the helm of the Commission, has fallen short of meeting these expectations.” 

The Senator noted that Liberia’s next general and presidential elections are scheduled for 2023, "But when you at this point already have an election commission that is showing that it is compromised, that’s worrisome." 

The Liberty Party is the second biggest opposition political party in Liberia, but the party is currently embroiled in an internal conflict that started in 2021 due to reported alterations of some provisions of its constitution by Chairman Musa Bility and some LP executives. 

Since then, the party has remained divided between two factions, headed by Chairman Musa Bility and the Political Leader, respectively.

“Commission’s Chairperson is conflicted and has integrity problems. The Chairperson is not independent. As a result, the Liberty Party has no confidence in the Commission’s leadership.”  The Grand Bassa County Senator made these remarks recently when she granted an exclusive podcast interview to The Issues Room, a Liberian-owned social media platform based in the United States of America (USA).

Touching on the LP's internal crisis, Lawrence said that the crisis in the Liberty Party is being politicized -- blaming the Chairperson and the NEC for exacerbating the conflict.

Lawrence noted that the conflict remains unresolved because of the failure of the NEC to respect rulings from the Supreme Court and adhere to its electoral laws and policies in dealing with the crisis.  In the LP leadership crisis, she accused the NEC Chairperson of being conflicted. She also accused Lansanah of having a dual relationship with the Chairman of the Liberty Party, Musa Bility. 

She recalled that in December of 2021, when the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) was prosecuting the NEC Chairperson for acts of malfeasance at the Commission, it was Bility who helped Lansanah secure a bond. 

"That's a conflict of interest," the LP Political Leader frowned.

Then the Chairperson was charged along with other accomplices of the NEC and forwarded to court for prosecution. She was indicted for conflict of interest after she admitted to presiding over an NEC bidding process that fraudulently awarded a contract to a Liberian business, Tuma Enterprise Incorporated.

The monetary value of the contract is more than US$182,000, and the company allegedly has a family tie to her.  According to the LACC, Chairperson Browne-Lansanah and the company’s Vice President for Operations, David Browne, are paternal half-siblings, while Arnold Badio, owner and incorporator of the company, is Browne’s maternal half-brother. 

Also, she was accused of violating Section 1.3.6 of the National Code of Conduct, which speaks against conflict of interest. However, in April of this year, the Judge of Criminal Court "C" at the Temple of Justice dismissed the criminal charges.

Meanwhile, the LP Political Leader says she will this Friday, October 21, 2022, lead a protest march in Monrovia against the NEC and its Chairperson, Browne-Lansanah, for the conflicted role they continue to play in the party’s internal conflict.

"We will go to the offices of the US Embassy, European Union (EU), United Nations PeaceBuilding Mission, and other international partners to tell them that the Liberty Party can’t work with the NEC because the Commission is compromised."

She emphasized, "It is time that the conflict in the Liberty Party comes to an end." In a related development, Lawrence has described the Liberian Legislature as the most compromised branch of the government.

She said the legislature is not independent. She claimed, "About 90 percent or even more of the lawmakers in the legislature do not make independent decisions. They follow decisions made by the executive branch, headed by the President.”

She said the inefficiency of the Liberian legislature is not unique to the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) administration.

"This is an age-old problem," she explained, attributing the problem to what she called an overly powerful executive branch headed by the President.

She said the problem is further compounded by ignorance. "Most Liberian lawmakers do not know the function of the legislature. They do not know their job duties and responsibilities," she declared.  According to her the fundamental roles of legislators as representation, oversight, and lawmaking.

"With effective oversight by lawmakers, we would help in making political changes in government, but unfortunately that’s not the case," she said. 

She said there are people in the legislature who are fixated only on championing the political agenda of the government or the ruling party.

"Those people are not interested in the well-being of the country or its people." 

Lawrence is currently in the United States as a guest of the Association of Liberian Journalists in the Americas (ALJA). She arrived in the country early this month; and was one of several eminent Liberians that attended and participated in the Association’s eighth annual convention, held from September 29th through October 2, 2022, in Worcester, Massachusetts.

On October 1st, she spoke at the convention’s general assembly. She delivered a paper on the theme, Challenges Facing Women's Political Participation in Liberia.

ALJA was revived in 2014 following 10 years of dormancy. The Association crumbled in 2004 due to internal rifts among its members and former leaders. ALJA is a conglomeration of current and retired Liberian journalists residing in the Americas. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

It was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1998 to advance press freedom through media capacity building. The Association is also dedicated to fostering the principles of good governance in Liberia through media advocacy.