By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor in Monrovia
The National Elections Commission has announced that it is not aware of the most talked about two million political rally organized by the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) scheduled on August 19th.
NEC says the rally under the banner; “Blue Day”, which is expected to bring out two million partisans of the CDC into the streets and corners of Monrovia, will be done without the knowledge of the electoral house.
Speaking at a press conference in Monrovia, August 16, Chairman Jerome George Korkoya said that the main opposition CDC is yet to inform them about the rally, and if, the authorities of the CDC did not inform the, that rally will be in violation of the guidelines of the commission.
It is one of the guidelines of the National Elections Commission that all political parties and independent candidates participating in the October 10, 2017 Representatives and Presidential elections provide its calendar events so as to put the commission is a better position of coordinating the political rallies so as to avoid cashes of partisans.
Korkoya added that it is the prayer of the commission that the CDC will do a formal communication to them so as to avoid problem with the guidelines of elections.
Chairman Korkoya also used the time to encourage the political parties to responsibly deal with take appropriate steps in order to maintain peace and stability.
But the National Secretary General of the CDC, Mr. Janga Augustus Kowo has rebuffed the NEC and says the secretariat of the Party wrote NEC and the communication was delivered this Tuesday, August 15th, at the head offices of Commission and that the communication was signed for by a lady identified as Mercy Yapkpazue.
Mr. Kowo encourages Cllr. Korkoya to check his records well before making such utterances against the CDC. He said that the CDC is not naïve enough to have written the NEC official on its launch of active political campaign.
His comment came in the wake of statement from the CDC youth wing Chairman, Jefferson Koijii that the company hired by NEC to do the printing of the 2017 elections ballot papers is owned by a relative of Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai, who is also presidential candidate for the governing Unity Party.
But Chairman Korkoya pointed out that the company hire is based in Europe with no indication of having local branch in Liberia. He noted that the statementof Koijii is intended to spark tension ahead of the October 10, 2017 Representatives and Presidential elections.
According to him, it is binding on all Liberians to ensure that elections are conducted in a peaceful, fair, free and transparent manner so that Liberians can witness the smooth transition of power to winners.
Last week, the CDC announced a rally of two million partisans, supporters and sympathizers in the streets of Monrovia.
The CDC has a history of calling huge rallies during political campaigns. In 2005 and 2011 the party announced one million man matches even though critics challenged the numbers.
Recently, the NEC announced that a total of 2,183,683 people registered to vote.
