By E. Geedahgar Garsuah
MONROVIA: The Campaign Teams of presidential candidates, Alexander Benedict Cummings and Dr. Clarence Moniba have accused the National Elections Commission (NEC) of deliberately underreporting their respective candidates’ votes.
The allegations, which were made in separate statements by both candidates’ Campaign Teams during the weekend, highlighted claims of foul play on the part of the electoral body.
The Cummings Campaign Team, claimed that the “ridiculously low” numbers being reported by the NEC do not reflect the actual numbers that Cummings has received.
“The Campaign Committee to elect Cummings President of Liberia is alarmed by the reported numbers the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) presidential ticket is said to have received so far,” Lewis Brown, the National Campaign Chairman for Cummings, said in a statement on October 12.
“While we are still assessing the results at this point, it’s important that we flag as a major issue of concern the clear pattern that is emerging across the country,” Brown added. Partisans and supporters of the Collaborating Political Parties from all across the country are informing us of troubling concerns that places where they voted, including in large numbers, are reporting ridiculously low numbers for Cummings. This is also true where CPP down-ballot candidates are projected to win.”
Similarly, the Moniba’s Campaign Team, in a separate statement, alleged a pattern of underreporting of their candidate’s votes, especially in areas where they had received overwhelming support from their supporters.
Moniba’s Campaign Chair, Lloyd Scott, explained that the alleged “discrepancies are a deliberate attempt to suppress their candidate’s electoral prospects.”
“Ensuring the validity of the vote count, one reflective of the true will of the Liberian people on October 10, remains the primary concern of the ‘A New Liberia’ movement under the candidacy of Moniba and Grace Kpaan,” Scott added.
“It is a process to which we remain fully committed and one from which we will not flinch,” it said.
“The Moniba/Kpaan campaign is alerted to serious concerns emanating from the vote counts released so far by the National Elections Commission. Without now issuing a final ruling on the authenticity of these initial results, they do raise serious concerns as polling centers in which our partisans and campaign staff voted in credible numbers, but the report is not reflective of any partisans or supporters voting for our ticket,” he claimed.
The statements from the Cummings and Moniba campaign teams come as they trail the two frontrunners of the October 10 polls by a wider margin.
