Several proposed political parties are expected to undergo thorough investigation and may face the wrath of the National Election Commission (NEC) for the their alleged involvement in fraudulent political activities if their investigation shows that the allegations are true.

As provided by the approved Elections Law of Liberia, each proposed political party requesting certificate from NEC is required to provide 500 names of membership from at least 12 of the 15 counties.

The Commission also requires that the proposed party’s membership listings be published in two local dailies and placed on the market to give the public the opportunity to carefully scrutinize and object to the listings if need be.

It has been learnt that some of the parties that could not meet the requirement are by ruse engaged in fraudulent acts in order to get their certificates from NEC..

According to the allegations, some of the proposed parties have chosen for their membership listings allegedly published in the local dailies not to be made available on the newsstand. Instead, it is alleged that each of these parties published their listings in two local dailies and then turned around and bought all the copies printed by each of the two dailies (for that particular edition), thereby denying the public the right to scrutinize the listings.

It is also alleged that not a single copy of these stealth publications was left with the printing house, nor placed on the newsstand. The plates used by the printer to print the editions in question are all said to have been taken away from the printing house to avoid people having access to the listings. In this case, only the NEC has copies the publications

Many political analysts are expressing disappointment and frustration over the failure of some of the proposed parties to allow the reading public to have access to their membership listings.

Meanwhile, the acting chairman of NEC, Mr. James Fromoyan when contacted on the situation, referred The Perspective to one Mr. Donyan who expressed dismay and shock over the situation.

According to Mr. Donyan, the commission will launch a thorough investigation both at the printing houses and the management of the newspapers that published the listings of the proposed parties.

He revealed that to enable the public to have access to the membership listings of these proposed parties; the newspapers need to publish several hundred copies of that particular edition, instead of only 20 to 30 copies of the edition.

“Why should the management of a newspaper or newspapers that published the listings of a proposed party/parties allow the same party/ parties to purchase all the newspapers without putting them on the newsstand.

Some opine that we cannot build a new democratic Liberia through hook of crook. They want for NEC to compel all the proposed political parties to make public their membership listings, as done by CDC of George Weah, to enable the public to have access the listings. They questioned the rationale of political parties that published their membership listings and then turned around and bought all the printed copies.

However, a partisan of one of the proposed political parties intimated that “we do not want to face the same problem the CDC is facing”.

Investigation continues…