GANTA, Nimba – The National Elections Commission has declared the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction Candidate as the winner of the October 10 representative election held in Nimba’s fourth electoral district, after reports were submitted from the re-examination process conducted on March 3, in Sanniquellie.

NEC declared Gunpue L. Kargon the winner of the election after its Board of Commissioners adopted the reports and recommendation from the verification exercise.

“The board, having heard the reading of the report from the re-examination team, and same being in conformity with the mandate of the honorable Supreme Court, and the only objection there, and having been earlier disposed of by this board, this said report is hereby confirmed, affirmed and adopted,” NEC’s Chairman Jerome Korkoya read.

NEC declared Kargon winner with the highest votes (6,326 or 24.5 percent). No date was given for when Kargon’s certification ceremony would take place.

Garrison Yealue, the incumbent lawmaker, had challenged the results of the elections to the Supreme Court. He had run on the ticket of Nimba’s Sen. Prince Johnson’s former National Union for Democratic Progress in 2011 but later fell out with Johnson.

Johnson’s new Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction planted a candidate against Yealue in the 2017 election and subsequently defeated him.

Johnson was one of those present during the hearing at NEC. He said the process was transparent and that the result from the hearing was what they had long anticipated.

“We told Garrison Yealue long time that Gunpue [Kargon] is the winner,” he added.  “I am so glad.”

Gunpue L. Kargon (left) and Senator Prince Johnson (right) at NEC headquarters during the re-examination report hearing. Photo: Zeze Ballah

Johnson said Yealue’s defeat in the election is not necessarily because he did not go as a candidate on the ticket of Johnson’s party. Rather, Johnson said it was because Yealue made himself unpopular with the people of the district.

“He was not in good books with the people,” he added. “He was in trouble always; he was a disappointment and a disgrace.”

Meanwhile, Yealue has confirmed that he is again taking the matter to the Supreme Court of Liberia for “better interpretation.”

Featured photo by Zeze Ballah