With barely a day to the deadline for the submission of candidates’ nomination, only one female has been recorded among the 25 aspirants to contest the pending by-elections.
According the National Election Commission (NEC) so far, the one female is among 4 males registered to contest in Bomi County while two male aspirants are from Nimba; seven male aspirants are from Bong County and one male aspirant is from Grand Gedeh County.
The Commission said all aspirants who received nomination packages are encouraged to return those packages to the NEC Candidate Nomination Center on 9th and 10th Streets on or before the 24th of September 2021 which is deadline for the Candidate Nomination Exercise.
The Commission said the Candidate Nomination process which began on September 13, 2021 will end on Friday, September 24 2021 and that there will be no extension of the timeframe.
The Commission further stated that of the 25 political parties and independent aspirants who collected nomination packages, only one is an independent aspirant from Bomi County who has returned the nomination package to the NEC’s Nomination Center.
The NEC Nomination team reported that as of September 16, 2021, the 10 political parties that had picked up nomination packages include, the Liberia National Union (LINU), Liberia Transformation Party (LTP), and Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), People’s Unification Party (PUP), Movement for Progressive Change (MPC), Rainbow Alliance (RA), Movement for One Liberia (MOL), Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), United People’s Party (UPP), and Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR).
Meanwhile, the NEC said it has received the joint resolution from the Legislature mandating the Commission to conduct By-elections in four counties.
The pending by-election in Bong, Bomi, Grand Gedeh, and Nimba Counties on November 16, 2021 is intended to replace four seated representatives who won Senatorial seats during the special senatorial elections.
In compliance with the resolution, the NEC has issued Writ of Elections to Magistrates of the four counties in which By-elections are expected to be held.