Majority members of the Senate have voted to terminate all Magistrates within 15 counties upon the passage of the new election despite strong opposition in Plenary session over the weekend.
One of the oppositions to the proposal is River Gee County Senator, Jonathan B. Sogbie, describing the law as anti-democratic law that is not in the interest of the citizenry.
The former Lone star striker vehemently objected to the new law saying that it’s intended to cheat in the 2023 pending Presidential and Legislative Elections.
He alleged that the majority of his colleagues who are supporters of the ruling establishment reportedly took the decision as means of creating job opportunities for Partisans.
“This law is not in the interest of the country. The CDC guys will use this opportunity to hire more partisans to control the Election,” he said.
Meanwhile members of the Liberian Senate over the weekend voted to deny the House of Representative’s proposal to increase registration for candidates including Presidential, Vice Presidential, Senator and Representative in the new electoral reform law.
In continuation of debates on the New Electoral Law, the Plenary of the Liberian Senate rejected and voted to maintain the initial fees for candidates’ registration.
The House of Representatives recently increased the registration fees of Presidential, Vice Presidential, Senatorial and Representatives’ Candidates subject to concurrence by the Senate.
According to the Senate Judiciary committee, the House increased the Presidential registration fee from US$ 2,500 to US$ 15,000, Vice Presidential Candidate from US$ 1,000 to US$10,000, while the Senatorial and Representative Candidates’ registration fees were increased from US$750 to US$7,500 and US$500 to US$7,000 respectively.
During the deliberations held on Friday, the Senate’s Plenary agreed with the House of Representatives on the 30 percent women participation.
In the agreement, political parties that will default in submitting listing of Aspirants that will carry not less than 30 percent women inclusion, will pay a fine of US$10,000 instead of US$15,000 as was passed by the House of Representatives.
