MONROVIA, Montserrado – Darryl Ambrose Nmah, the official spokesperson for the Supreme Court, has clarified that the stay order issued to halt the presidential runoff election slated for November 7 was in fact issued by Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh, not the full bench.

Speaking on ELBC Radio on Wednesday, Nmah said Ja’neh, who was the Justice-in-Chamber at of the time of the filling of the writ of prohibition by Liberty Party, had issued the order and not the full Supreme Court.

Nmah’s clarification does not appear to have any legal implications. What it means is that this is an alternative writ of prohibition, meaning it is temporary until the court can have enough time to examine the request.

Darryl Ambrose Nmah is the director of Judicial Public Information at the Supreme Court. Photo: Zeze Ballah

According to him, the case has been assigned for argument on Friday, November 3, at 2:00 p.m. at the Supreme Court. A prior press release had indicated Thursday, November 2 at 9:00 a.m. as the date for the argument.

Nmah explained that because of the urgency of the election matters, he is optimistic that after the argument between lawyers representing Liberty Party and the National Elections Commission, the judges will return to their chamber and deliberate on the case.

He indicated that there are instances where the Supreme Court has delivered opinions at midnight, noting that “it is possible that same could happen or might occur on Saturday in the case of the LP and NEC.”

After Friday’s hearing, he said: “the court could uphold the petition filed by the LP and issue the preemptory writ for a permanent stay on the runoff presidential election or deny the petition and instruct NEC to proceed.”

Featured image courtesy of Flickr’s mjmkeating