MONROVIA: The former political party of Cllr. Joseph K. Jallah, who is the officially declared winner of the just-ended Lofa County bi-elections has called for investigation of what it termed as “conflicting votes tallies.”
Cllr. Jallah served as Chairman of the Liberian People’s Party (LPP), for more than a decade, according to the party’s sources.
However, Cllr. Jallah was removed from the party’s Chairmanship following LPP’s recent National Convention. Jallah’s removal was effected before his participation in the June 28, 2022 Lofa County senatorial Bi-elections. He entered the Lofa by-election race as an independent candidate who was later backed by the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), that did not put out a candidate in the Lofa by-election.
Ironically, Cllr. Jallah’s former party, the Liberian Peoples’ Party (LPP), has strongly called for an immediate investigation into “Conflicting Vote Tallies from the just-ended Lofa County By-Election published on July 1, 2022, by the National Elections Commission on her official website.”
Nevertheless, LPP, in a press release issued over the weekend in Monrovia extended warm felicitations to the peace-loving people of the Republic of Liberia and members of the Diplomatic Corps resident in Liberia.
“The National Leadership of this noble institution wishes to use this means to convey what it considers a national shame and a recipe for political chaos; that is, if corrective measures are not taken to prevent a reoccurrence of such a travesty of democracy,” the release pointed out.
LPP: “After carefully following events from the just-ended Senatorial By-Election in Lofa County, we wish to use as reliance the following observatory discrepancies gathered from the various communication channels of the National Elections Commission (NEC) of the Republic of Liberia to caution, recommend, and demand collective practical actions from all political parties in Liberia and other institutions dedicated to the advancement of democracy.”
“On the 1st of July 2022, at 2:33 pm, the NEC published on its website and Facebook page results from the just-ended 2022 By-Elections in Lofa County, after careful observations of the vote tallies published by NEC via its website, we observed the following discrepancies which we believe undermine the credibility of the results and expose the institutional inefficiency of the Commission, something we considered a direct threat to our electoral mandate as a political party.”
Please see below some of the discrepancies we discovered:
➢ At Precinct 21025 – Foya Market Hall, Foya a total voters’ turnout of 2,536 is reported, while the summation of the total valid and invalid votes stands at 1,142 voters. The difference between the voters’ turnout and the total valid and invalid votes here is 1,394.
➢ At Precinct 21070 – Manticora Town Hall, Mendicorma a total voters’ turnout of 1,515 is reported, while the summation of the total valid and invalid votes stands at 567 voters. The difference between the voters’ turnout and the total valid and invalid votes here is 948.
➢ At Precinct 21046 – Worsongar Public School, Worsongar a total voters’ turnout of 1,570 is reported, while the summation of the total valid and invalid votes stands at 622 voters. The difference between the voters’ turnout and the total valid and invalid votes here is 948.
➢ At Precinct 21049 – Kamalah Town Hall, Kamalah a total voters’ turnout of 512 is reported, while the summation of the total valid and invalid votes stands at 155 voters. The difference between the voters’ turnout and the total valid and invalid votes here is 357.
➢ At Precinct 21084 – Kolahun Public School, Kplohun a total voters’ turnout of 2,659 is reported, while the summation of the total valid and invalid votes stands at 1,224 voters. The difference between the voters’ turnout and the total valid and invalid votes here is 1,435.
➢ At Precinct 21100 – Vahun Town Hall, Vahun a total voters’ turnout of 1,237 is reported, while the summation of the total valid and invalid votes stands at 499 voters. The difference between the voters’ turnout and the total valid and invalid votes here is 738.
In addition to these incomprehensible discrepancies which warrant immediate investigation, we also notice disparities in the number of registered voters on the print preview page of the results from the Commission’s website and the actual pages that are displayed upon opening results by polling places on the websites.
The party added that considering the above, “we like to inform the Commission that a simple Facebook post indicating an attempt to hack your website is inadequate and does not deal with the institutional inadequacy of the Commission or by extension alleviate the fear of distrust in the Commission’s ability to hold free, fair, and transparent election come 2023.”
The LPP said “based on our collective experience as a nation and understanding the nature of politics in most underdeveloped third world nations, where poverty, illiteracy, and ignorance undermine all moral standards, for which Liberia is no exception, especially considering our recent history of gun violence and social degradation that resulted from misrule, bad governance, and tyranny, we call on all political parties, especially those in opposition to immediately summon the courage to join us in demanding a total cleaning of the National Voters Roll and all election data that are relevant to 2023 and all future elections”, the release, signed by the party’s National Chairman, J. Yanqui Zaza, further stated.
