Filed in by Olando Testimony Zeongar – 0776819983/0880-361116/life2short4some@yahoo.com
MONROVIA – As tallying continues at the National Elections Commission (NEC), with provisional results coming from polling places in the Montserrado County senatorial and District #15 by-elections held on Monday, 29 July, both the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and the collaborating political parties are claiming to be in the lead.
At a post-election press conference a day after election day, CDC chairman Mulbah Morlu claimed the governing party has reports in its possession that suggest both Paulitta C. Wie and Abu B. Kamara, candidates of the party in the senatorial and District #15 Representative by-elections are in the lead.
“Reports in our possession show an authoritative lead in the two by-elections and we will not follow the opposition’s quest to claim the victory or to undermine the truism of tally sheets signed by poll workers and records of the National Elections Commission,” Morlu said Tuesday.
He claims the CDC has tallied about 90 percent of the votes cast in the senatorial by-election, with a margin in the party’s favor, adding that the ruling party can also boast of having overwhelming won the District #15 by-election, after tallying 100 percent of the votes cast.
“While we recognize that the senatorial election shows a margin in our favor, as we have tallied 90% of the votes cast, we can also boastfully say that District 15 is overpoweringly won by our candidate, Abu Bana Kamara, after tallying 100% of the votes cast,” Morlu said.
“We want all of our supporters to remain calm and democratic, but demonstrate a high spirit of patriotism during this period of opposition’s quest to claim a victory that they don’t have,” said Morlu, who accused the collaborating opposition political parties (LP, UP, ALP and ANC) and their candidates of already celebrating “a victory they don’t have.”
However, Morlu, who also told partisans and supporters of his party to remain calm and look forward to what he referred to as the CDC’s victory that will be announced very shortly, stressed, “as a democratic institution, the CDC will respect, as always, any credible results coming from the National Elections Commission.”
Earlier on Tuesday, LP Chairman and Lofa County Senator Steve Zargo announced at a news conference that results in the possession of the party show that the collaborating parties’ senatorial candidate Darius Dillon had a margin of 20,000 difference between him and the ruling party’s candidate, Paulitta Wie.
Chairman Zargo also disclosed that results in the four collaborating political parties’ possession put their candidate Telia Urey in the lead against his main contender, Abu Kamara of the governing CDC in the District #15 by-election.
The collaborating parties are covetously protecting their votes, according to Zargo, who called on the international community to be aware of what he called an “attempt by the ruling party to thwart results.”
“Our technical team is currently monitoring and tally sheets available to the collaborating political parties show that the two candidates on the ticket of the collaborating parties are in an irreversible lead,” Zargo said.
He added: “We thank the people of Montserrado County for turning out to make history by defeating CDC in what is believed to be their back yard. We will jealously protect our ballot.”
The situation in the country is a bit nervy, as many citizens especially those in Montserrado County await the official results which NEC has promised to release within 48 hours, while supporters of the ruling party and those of the collaborating parties including their candidates are in post-election celebrations.
