MONROVIA, Montserrado – Abraham Darius Dillon, vice chair for political activities of the opposition Liberty Party, says his party has made no official endorsement to support either Unity Party or the Coalition for Democratic Change but he clarified that his party would not remain neutral in the runoff election.
Dillon’s clarification comes in the wake of mounting speculations on social media alleging that he and the party’s vice presidential candidate, Harrison Karnwea, were scheduled to pledge their support to CDC on Monday, December 11.
Speaking on Truth FM on Monday, Dillon maintained that Liberty Party would endorse one of the two parties participating in the runoff election.
“The party’s endorsement will not be on the basis of speculations,” he said, refuting the rumors that his party had already pledged its support to George Weah.
Dillon said Liberty Party was consulting with its partisans on a way forward in the runoff election, adding that “every member of the party deserves to be listened to.”
“The party is not a military institution where discussions are made by few people,” Dillon said.
When discussions are concluded, Dillon said, the party would announce its official endorsement in a live radio broadcast.
Charles Walker Brumskine polled 149,495 votes during the first round of the elections, amounting to 9.6 percent.
A few days after the October 10 polls, the Liberty Party standard bearer described the results as “not valid.” According to Brumskine, the process did not pass the minimum standards required for free, fair, and transparent elections.
“The elections were characterized by gross irregularities and fraud,” Brumskine said, which undermined the integrity of the elections and deprived thousands of Liberians of their constitutional right to vote.
A writ of prohibition was filed by the party at the Supreme Court to get a stay order issued on the presidential runoff election, which had been initially scheduled for November 7.
Following weeks of argument, Muana Ville, the National Elections Commission’s chief dispute hearing officer, denied the party’s request for a rerun due to lack of sufficient evidence of widespread fraud.
Liberty Party took its appeal to the Supreme Court and on November 1, the Supreme Court ordered the NEC to proceed with the runoff election.
Associate Justice Philip A. Z. Banks, who read the court’s final ruling, said while the complainants presented evidence that showed that NEC had violated certain aspects of the law, they failed to show that the evidence pervaded the entire elections or in most parts of the country.
Banks noted that as important as the evidence was, the fraud and irregularities complained of and shown by the testimonies of the various witnesses were limited and did not indicate a widespread intentional gross conspiracy by NEC.
Featured photo by Zeze Ballah