The former Dean at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, T. Negbalee Warner, has described the mass voters trucking of citizens across the country as a form of modern day’s slavery and human trafficking
That could cause future electoral violence.
He made these assertions over the weekend when he served as the keynote speaker of the Liberia National Bar Association (LNBA) Law day celebration held at the E.J.S. Ministerial Complex.
This year’s Law Day was celebrated under the theme: “Episode of electoral violence and prospect’s for Constitutional democracy.”
He believes that trucking voters by its nature is at the request of and for the benefit of the transporter and it is not much different from human trafficking.
Cllr. Warner defined human trafficking as “The illegal transfer, transporting and hiring of a person with the intent to hold the person captive, for or exploit the person.”
He disclosed that one may argue that the practice does not equate to trafficking in person in that those who are transported do agree and are not held captive for otherwise exploitation
“I will think that a person seizing someone voters registration card is not different from a person seizing a person passport in human trafficking cases. However, I also believe that the practice of acquiring proof of voting is sufficient evidence of the person being exploited of their voting services” he stated.
The former Dean noted that there are three areas of which lawyers; the bench and the bar have a critical role to play in supporting other stakeholders to promote integrity, and legality of the upcoming elections as some possible ways of preventing electoral violence and enhancing constitutional democracy.
He said, “The first is combating voters trucking that decrease votes. The next is illegal campaign financing and lastly, the upholding of the principal of one man, one vote.”
“Trucking of voting is nothing but a trafficking of voters which is part of human trafficking. It is also a form of modern day slavery which is prohibited by Article 12 of the Liberian Constitution. Article 12 of our Constitution provides that no person must be held in slavery,” he pointed out.
“The sooner we stop and see trucking of voters as an act of human trafficking, and modern day slavery, the sooner we will appreciate the need to deal with it urgently and commissioned,” Cllr. Warner warned.
According to him, voters trucking, illegal campaign financing and the absence of the principal of one man, one vote undermines electoral integrity and promotes violence which is against Constitutional democracy.
He also recommended to the Government of Liberia, the Legislature and the bench of the Supreme Court that for voters trucking to be mitigated, it has to make sure that trafficking is less profitable by prohibiting phones or other electronic devices in voting places that is likely to be used to take photo to complete the balance.
He further recommended that Liberia should establish criminals’ procedure for change of constituencies which is deal with by the constitution.
“The right change of constituencies is supposed to be dealt with by the Constitution of Liberia. Article 80 (c) of the constitution provides that a citizen shall have the right to change his or her voting constituencies as may be prescribed by the Legislature.”
Cllr. Warner believed that the legislative frameworks and the normalizing of voters trucking are an affront to constitutional principles for a free, fair electoral process.
Emphasizing on voters trucking, Cllr. Warner further indicated that voters trucking needs urgent judicial attention and review because it has the propensity to cause serious electoral violence that may cause major harm for the country including property damage and loss of lives when ignored.
