By Grace Q. Bryant
Associate Justice Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh has informed members of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) that the framework document is a private contract agreement entered among parties.
On Thursday, May 5, before the full bench of the Supreme Court, Justice Yuoh wondered how the CPP’s framework document became a matter before the Supreme Court.
Entertaining arguments from lawyers representing the party litigants which lasted for nearly three hours before Justice Francis Korkpor’s bench, Justice Yuoh who then wondered how the issue went at the National Elections Commission to become a matter of law to reach the Supreme Court, sternly interjected that it is a private party’s contract and when someone gets in and wants to leave that is their decision.
“Do you expect the Supreme Court to look at somebody’s private business? Are these the bases to bring this matter to the Supreme Court? I still cannot understand. Do you want the Supreme Court to interpret the provisions embedded in a private party’s contract that is a purely private agreement? How did we get here?” Justice Yuoh inquired after listening to the matter in toto.
Among her inquiry, Justice Youh asked the parties to explain the legal reason why the case should be a business of concern to the Supreme Court, when the CPP framework document is a private party contract.
However, none of the parties’ lawyers could provide a direct answer to Justice Yuoh’s inquiries, leaving the Justice to wonder about the rationale of the case before the Supreme Court.
“So what makes it a violation of the Constitution or the violation of the rights of another private party? How did this case reach the Supreme Court to interpret private party arrangements,” Justice Yuoh wondered.
The issue about Constitutional violation raised by Justice Youh is about NEC’s decision to prohibit itself from proceeding with any action regarding the fielding of the UP’s candidate for the Lofa County Senatorial by-election until the Supreme Court considers the constitutional questions involved.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court reserved ruling in the matter without a specific time and date.
It can be recalled that the NEC deferred the Unity Party (UP) to the Supreme Court on the note that the elections management body remained undecided on whether or not to prevent UP from fielding candidate in Lofa County re-run senatorial election as the contending parties hold the view that a clause within the framework prevent any party from going independent and that must be adhered to while the resistant party’s argument is that Article 1 of the Liberian Constitution speaks to freedom of association and movements and that the Constitution supersedes any other law.
On the other hand, NEC’s Hearing Officer, Atty. Fomba A.M. Swaray has prohibited the Commission from taking any further action in the case until the Supreme Court decides.
In a ruling handed down on Thursday, April 21, 2022, Atty. Swaray said the question as to whether an agreement among political parties is constitutional or unconstitutional is best reserved for the Supreme Court and informed the parties that the investigation cannot make any determination on the constitutional issues raised by the complainants and defendants respectively.
The hearing officer said this will allow the opportunity for the Supreme Court to possibly consider the constitutional questions raised in the matter.
The former ruling Unity Party alongside the ALP have been in a seesaw battle with a faction of the opposition Liberty Party chaired by Mr. Musa Bility at the NEC on account of Bility’s request for the electoral house to not allow the UP and ALP candidates in their own names for the Lofa bye-election.
Bility believes that a clause within the controversial framework document of the crumbled CPP would disqualify UP and ALP from fielding candidates in the Lofa by-election after they withdrew their respective parties from the CPP.
But UP insists that it is not a signatory to the controversial CPP framework document submitted to the Elections Commission by embattled Chair Bility and the Alternative National Congress (ANC).
ANC’s political leader, Alexander B. Cummings, is currently facing criminal trial after being accused by ALP’s political leader Benoni Urey of allegedly tampering with the CPP framework document and illegally attaching his (Urey’s) signature to a photocopy version. Cummings has always denied any wrongdoing.
But following weeks of hearing at the NEC, Atty. Swaray said the NEC is prohibited from taking any further action on any endorsement from or other documents put forth by Liberty Party’s faction of Bility and the ANC of Alexander B. Cummings