By S. Siapha Mulbah
The Economic Freedom Fighters of Liberia has threatened to go after the National Elections Commission and others political actors with ulterior motives of undermining the peace and democracy of the nation, through tampering with the upcoming general and presidential elections to be held next Tuesday, October 10, 2023.
They said the people with the power are resolved with a resounding message that they are tired with the regime of the day and want to have a new dawn in the leadership arena.
The political pressure group said the objective of the elections under the constitution of the Republic is to have the masses exercising their rights to make leadership decisions with all fairness and transparency.
Contrary to the concept of holding a process void of intrusion and intimidation, the Fighters disclosed that they as stakeholders to the elections, will go after the National Elections Commission if the Commission’s actions lead to political uprisings like the cases of other countries around the world and parts of the African continent.
Addressing a news conference Monday October 2, 2023, the Commander-In-Chief of the EFFL, Emmanuel Gonquoi, reported that the Elections Commission is continuously raising contentions through direct and indirect actions and statements. He said it is unclear to tell whether the current administration presiding over the elections will be independent to conduct the election, based upon the way they are proceeding with the processes.
Gonquoi intimated that electoral violence constitutes nearly 90% of conflicts around the world, and it is done because of electoral bodies’ intent to deviate from the true essence of elections around the world, which Liberia is no exception to.
“The true essence of these elections is to ensure that Liberians go through a process that is free, fair, and transparent. The way the National Elections is proceeding is wrong and if care is not taken, we will go to the dark days. We do not want to have a repeat of 1984 and the NEC has to shoulder the responsibility of conducting the process,” he said.
According to Gonquoi, the National Elections Commissions recently met with partners of the elections and international actors with an information that the Commission is challenged in terms of the needed logistics to have a biometric elections. As such, he added that the commission is supposed to have a manual elections, which requires the punching of voting cards after a voter participates in the exercise.
He disclosed that they as parties have been informed that the cards will not be punched after use and will not be able to prevent a single person from voting more than once, adding that it is a recipe for chaos in elections.
He emphasized, “Those that will want to undermine the decision of the Liberian people through plots to tamper with the votes are enemies of the State and we will go after said people if anything goes wrong.”
The leader of the political group also revealed that a paramilitary group under the Economic Freedom Fighter, dubbed “Defenders of the Revolutionary” (DOR), will be out on the day of the election with an aim of protecting poll watchers and voting centers.
He said, “The DOR operations will be to provide security for the poll watchers and everyone connected with the protection of our votes, leaders, and people, so that they cannot be under any form of intimidation on the day of elections.”
