MONROVIA, Montserrado – Following final official tally of votes in the senatorial by-election in Montserado, the National Elections Commission on Friday, August 2, declared Abraham Darius Dillon of the opposition Liberty Party winner of the July 29 senatorial elections in Montserrado.

NEC Chairman Jerome Korkoyah on Friday, August 2 declared Dillon the winner ahead of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change party’s candidate Paulita C. C. Wie.

Korkoyah said Dillon secured a total of 102,549 votes representing 55.74 percent while his closest rival Wie obtained 63,971 votes representing 34.77 percent adding “Senator-elect Dillion will be certificated within the period provided for by law”.

“The results represent votes tally from all 1,790 polling places or 100 percent of all polling places in the Montserrado senatorial by-election,” Korkoyah maintained.

Abraham Darius Dillon, the senator-elect for Montserrado. Photo: Zeze Ballah

Dillon was backed by three opposition political parties, including Unity Party, Liberty Party, the Alternative National Congress, and the All Liberian Party.

For the 15^th district by-election, Korkoyah announced provisional results from 74 of the 94 polling places stressing “they represent results from 78.7 percent of the polling places in the district”.

“Consistent with the NEC procedures, results from the remaining 20 polling places which constitute 21.3 percent of polling places are currently quarantined and will not be announced today pending the outcome of an investigation into complaints being conducted by the commission’s Independent Dispute Hearing Office,” he pointed out.

Korkoyah explained that the complaints were filed by the All Liberian Party candidate Telia Urey’s campaign team at four precincts with codes numbers 30136, 30135, 30186, and 30437.

“The second set of complaints were filed by another candidate, Bishop Slebo Frank, at precincts with codes numbers 30188 and 30132,” he added.

An updated tally announced by NEC said Urey of the ALP has so far secured 5,573 votes representing 42.68 percent while Abu Kamara of the CDC obtained 5,417 votes representing 41.48 percent.

“Due to the investigation into allegations of discrepancies brought to the NEC by the Urey campaign, the commission will announce the remaining twenty polling places upon completion of the investigation,” Korkoyah said.

The new results released by NEC conspicuously reduced Kamara’s vote count by 98 votes from when the elections body released its first provisional results that placed Kamara in the lead. NEC has not explained why, even though more polling places have been counted (78 percent of polling placed versus 69 percent in the first set of results), Kamara’s vote count was reduced.

Senator-elect Dillon will now replace Geraldine Doe-Sheriff of the UP who died from an illness on February 9 in Accra, Ghana at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

Results for the Monserrado senatorial by-election.

Results for the 15th district by-election.

Featured photo by Zeze Ballah