POLITICS-LIBERIA: The Road to the Ballot Box Seems Rocky

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Abdullah Dukuly

MONROVIA, Feb 17 2003 (IPS) - The road to the ballot box in Liberia’s political contest seems to be rocky as insecurity, violence and intimidation of political opponents rise in the run up to October’s general elections.

The race kicked off a few days ago with attacks, arrests and intimidation of political opponents and in one case the shooting of an opposition activist – raising the questions of insecurity, unhindered canvassing and level-playing field in the forthcoming elections.

Political analysts say the election may be between two forces – the ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP) of President Charles Taylor and 13 or so opposition parties seeking mergers and alliances.

The ruling party, according to critics, is gradually earning the name "Military Party". Its officials, far from being apologetic, are openly proud of their links with mushrooming armed militias, to the discomfiture of opposition politicians.

Tensions began to rise on Jan 18 when a pro-government militia, Roland Thompson – trying to disrupt an opposition rally – shot an opposition supporter, Dickson Barrie, in central Liberia.

Then another rally planed for the homecoming of a prominent opposition leader, Charles Brumskine, was called off after police arrested two of Brumskine’s leading supporters in the port city of Buchanan, 88 kilometres east of the capital, Monrovia.

Brumskine, a former Speaker of parliament, fled the country two years ago, after falling out with Taylor. His supporters were released after a student protest.

"The campaigning will be bloody if political attacks continue unabated, and the academic progress of our children will continuously be retarded if the political bickering continues," warns Beatrice Flomo, a 56-year-old mother, whose six children are all in school.

An observer, accustomed to the rigors of African politics and polls, is not surprised at the violent turn in which the political process is taking. Preferring to remain anonymous, he says in Africa, election is war. In Liberia particularly, he believes, it may mean total war.

Even before the race begins, the players have lined up, determined to play a game no one is certain will be free and fair. In Monrovia, some players have begun practicing even in the absence of rules.

While opposition politicians are preaching the gospel of deploying an international stabilisation force to maintain order and ensure confidence, the NPP is pushing the virtues of a local intervention force to be drafted mainly from the youth, especially the students and former combatants.

NPP chairperson, Cyril Allen, addressing journalists on Jan 30, said bringing in foreign troops would be counter productive as they will loot and vandalise the nation’s resources. The following day, he carried his youth recruitment message to the nation’s main university campus where he was booed and jeered.

Visibly angered by Allen’s proposal, the students invited opposition leader Brumskine to address them. The invitation, which caused uproar, forced the university administration to cancel the event. And, student leader, Siaffa Kpoto, arrested for allegedly fomenting troubles, was released after a protest.

Estella Jones, a university student and sympathiser of the NPP, says ”the issue of foreign troops’ deployment is ludicrous. We are a sovereign state and cannot surrender ourselves to foreigners”. But Ellen Duncan, 36, an opposition supporter, says ”conducting elections in the midst of the guns, may be acceptable to the likes of the NPP, but not to those with no guns”.

For John Ballah, a schoolteacher, campaigning in the midst of the guns will be disastrous for the opposition political parties. ”During the first phase of the war (1989-1997), we advocated the seating of the transitional government, leaving the warlords supreme authority. We all saw what happened. We should not make a similar mistake again. Let’s have an international stabilisation force,” he says.

Ernest Massaquoi, a 78-year-old retired civil servant, says the Oct 14 poll has raised an early hope for peace. But, he says, ”given the present situation, peace is even illusive than it was in 1997 when troops of the West African Peacekeeping Force, known as ECOMOG, were in charge of security during the election that brought Mr. Taylor to power".

Taylor’s inauguration as President was thought to seal the peace, which was shattered after he ignited the seven-year bloody war from neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire. In the north, war is raging between the rebels of the Liberia United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the government. And, in the northeast, LURD claims a string of military successes against the government.

”As long as LURD is fighting and the level-playing field is not created in areas controlled by the government,” says Jenevive Washington, 45, a seamstress, ”we will not hold a peaceful, free and fair election”. The state security, she says, ”will continue to create more problems for opposition parties”.

From all indications, the October elections may have parallels with the 1985 elections, which many believe were rigged by the military-backed National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL) of slain dictator Samuel Doe.

In 1985, there was a factor of violence and threats from the army’s open endorsement of Doe’s NDPL. As if this was not enough, NDPL brought in ”well-trained thugs” from neighbouring Sierra Leone to help in the intimidation of political opponents. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President Taylor’s archrival in the 1997 elections, sees attacks on her supporters as a clear violation of their basic human rights as enshrined in Liberia’s constitution.

The government halted a planned welcome rally for her from abroad, and prevented her Unity Party (UP) to hoist its flag and reopen its branches around the country, she says.

Jeremy Johnson, a schoolteacher, sees the attacks as a bad omen for the credibility of the elections. In his view, Liberia risks another rigged election, which U.S. Ambassador John Blaney recently said his government would reject.

Local rights groups urged the government to demonstrate its commitment to creating an environment for party politics and punish perpetrators of injustice.

For Brumskine, the need for an international stabilisation force is paramount as it will largely help end the ongoing war and create a security environment for free campaign.

With his eyes on the presidency, Brumskine returned home Jan 21 to a tumultuous welcome. He told jubilant supporters he has a ”national agenda for the resurrection of the country”, which still lacks social services.

He appealed to politicians to come together in building the war-ravaged country in spite of threats on their life.

Observers believe the lawyer-turned politician may be craving for a grand coalition to defeat Taylor at the polls. At the 1997 polls, they failed to form a successful coalition against Taylor. But Brumskine says they are trying to avoid a political division that will make Taylor win again in October.