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POLITICS-LIBERIA: Better Some Right to Vote Than None?
By Abdullah Dukuly
MONROVIA, Oct 4 (IPS) - Liberians go to the polls next week for their
country's first general elections since civil war was brought to a halt in
the West African state in 2003.
An estimated 1.3 million registered voters (out of a population of 3.5
million) will queue on Oct. 11 to choose a president from 22 candidates,
including soccer great George Weah. More than 500 candidates are vying for
64 parliamentary seats, and about 200 for 30 senate seats.
The new government will take over from a transitional authority installed
after the departure of former president Charles Taylor, now exiled in
Nigeria.
Taylor's departure was prompted by the advance of rebels on Liberia's
capital, Monrovia. Accused of perpetrating numerous atrocities in the
country after starting an earlier rebellion in 1989, the ex-leader is also
under indictment by a United Nations-backed court for his part in war crimes
carried out in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
The presence of about 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers is expected to guarantee a
tranquil poll next week. However, not everyone will be able to take full
advantage of their right to vote.
A number of internally displaced persons (IDPs), forced to leave their
homes during the various bouts of civil war, will be able to cast ballots
for a president - but not for legislators in the two houses of parliament.
Votes for legislators have to be cast in the regions which these officials
will represent; but, certain displaced Liberians will not be in their
constituencies to do so. IDPs are not counted as members of the districts in
which their camps are situated.
According to the National Elections Commission (NEC), about 61,000
internally displaced persons have registered to vote. Just under a third of
these people will still be in the camps they inhabit come Oct. 11, where
they will only be allowed to vote for a president.
Last month, exasperated IDPs threatened to burn their voting cards and
boycott the poll if not allowed full voting rights. Reports also quoted them
as pledging to prevent any polling at all from taking place in IDP camps.
However, these threats were withdrawn last week, when the IDPs said they
would take part in the poll.
Elder George, a spokesman for 15 IDP camps around Monrovia, said there
would be "no disturbances...during the elections", noting that the dispute
with the NEC was borne largely of fears that the plight of displaced persons
would be relegated to the back burner after polling.
Yvonne Smith, an elderly woman at the Blamasie IDP camp in western
Monrovia, told IPS that "These people in charge of managing the affairs of
this country are not trustworthy."
"They have squandered all the resources given them by the international
community to repatriate us."
The administration of outgoing head of state Gyude Bryant has been mired
in charges of corruption, while Taylor stands accused of looting millions of
dollars from government coffers.
NEC Chairperson Frances Johnson-Morris said an IDP boycott of polling in
camps would not have been acceptable.
"We can't have elections and about 24,000 people are saying they are not
participating. It's not going to be good elections," she noted. "I know that
IDPs would be among the first people who would want to vote in this
election, to show that the condition in the country is changed so that we
will never have IDPs again in our country."
Efforts to return the displaced to their homes have been hampered by a
lack of funds, and torrential rains which have left Liberia's dirt roads
impassable.
Officials have warned that the unusually wet weather could also prevent
other voters from making it to polling stations next week.
Samuel Kortie, a human rights activist, believes that the partial
disenfranchisement of displaced persons might throw a dampener on the poll
- but that the current situation is the best that could be hoped for under
the circumstances.
"Most of Liberia's international partners will probably accept this as an
inevitable consequence of holding elections only two years after the end of
a 15-year civil war," he noted. "What we should get from this current
electoral process is a government that more accurately reflects the people's
wishes."
A staggering array of challenges awaits those who triumph during the
upcoming vote.
Years of conflict have resulted in widespread destruction of buildings
and other infrastructure, and high unemployment. Those without jobs include
tens of thousands of former combatants who still have to be reintegrated
into society.
It is feared that these ex-fighters could be deployed in a new round of
civil war should they continue to be confronted with a future that holds few
prospects. This could provoke instability in the broader West African
region, where a number of countries have potential for conflict - or are
emerging from civil war. (END/2005)
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