[ 2011-10-08 ]

Liberia: Elections 2011 Daily News Review
With just four more days to the polls, most of the
stories carried in today's dailies centers on
peace and violence free elections. The Insight
newspaper reports that, ECOWAS Urges Early
Deployment of Police for Liberia. West African
defense chiefs have urged for the deployment of
pledged hundreds of regional police personnel in
Liberia, ahead of the nation's October 11
presidential and legislative elections.The
statement issued at the end of a two day meeting
of the ECOWAS defense chiefs recommended that the
four nations, that have pledged to contribute at
least 540 police and 280 gendarmes as support to
reinforce the Liberian police for the polls, to do
so.The countries which made the pledge last month
are Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria,
the statement said.

Elections Not War Between Political Parties,
National Muslim Council Calls for Peaceful Poll,
Says people Are Not Monkeys, Baboons. According to
the Public Agenda newspaper,the National Muslim
Council of Liberia says the holding of elections
is not a warfare between political parties, but a
constitutionally given right to all citizens to
elect a president and lawmakers for the political
subdivisions, which "requires not only unity of
purpose and action by all well-meaning Liberians,
but sober reflection and objective analysis of the
need of the country".A news release from the
Council says in the aftermath of elections, the
total happiness of the Liberian people and the
accelerated achievement of the development goals
and agenda of the incoming government will depend
on the choice of leaders made at the pools on
October.



According to FrontPage Africa, Presidential
Aspirants Vow To Promote Reconciliation. The paper
writes that, at least four presidential candidates
out of the sixteen vying for the presidency of
Liberia were showcased in a debate organized by
five civil society, media and NGO groups to
explain to the Liberian people what they hope to
accomplish if they were elected to lead the
country.

Those featured in the debate which took place in
the theater of the Monrovia City hall were the
standard bearers of the Liberty Party, Cllr.
Charles Brumskine, National Democratic Coalition,
Prof. Dew Mayson, Alliance for Peace and
Democracy, Togba Nah Tipoteh and Congress for
Democratic Change, Cllr. Winston Tubman.

In different headlines, the Heritage and Inquirer
newspapers have each written about some concerns
raised by the United States Ambassador to Liberia,
Linda Thomas Greenfield when she appeared on the
Truth Breakfast Show. Whiles the Heritage
newspaper adopts the headline,We Are Watching
Keenly Says America of Liberia's Elections, the
Inquirer uses the headline, "We Will Call It As We
See It" Says US Ambassador on Electoral process;
Warns Against Violence. Both papers present that,
America and its key partners arekeenly watching
the electoral process of Liberia with tremendous
amount of interest and that the United Sates does
not have any candidate in the pending election but
their interest is Liberia and its people, adding
that "this is why we are supporting the process.
We have provided US$18.5 to the process for five
years".



In other news, the Liberian Express reports that,
the National Elections Commission has raised an
alarm that some 10,000 registered voters are
suspected to have plans of voting twice in the
October 11 poll. NEC Co-Chairman, Cllr. Elizabeth
Nelson said the names were discovered during
random check of the voters' list nationwide.
Elizabeth said the software used to track the
names has been passed on to the Ministry of
Justice for further investigation. The story is
headlined, 10,000 Voters Suspicious.

General Yakubu Gowon, Leads Carter Delegation for
Elections, the Inquirer reports. The Carter Center
announced today that General Dr. Yakubu Gowon,
Nigeria's former head of state, will lead the
Center's International election observation
delegation to Liberia. General Gowon and the
Carter Center leadership team will meet with key
political stakeholders including the National
Elections Commission, political parties,
independent candidates, civil organization,
government officials and the international
community, and will observe polling, counting, and
tabulation on Election Day.

Relevant Links
West Africa
Liberia
Governance
Media
We end today's review with the New Dawn story,
Parties in Final Showdown as CDC Storms Monrovia,
Today, UP Sunday. According to the paper, what may
be a major attempt by the main opposition,
Congress for Democratic Change, to overshadow
Unity Party's "Hurricane Ellen" which hit Monrovia
on September 17, takes place today in the capital.
The party had a major 'camp fire' last evening at
its national headquarters in Congo Town with the
presence of Ambassadors Tubman and Weah to
heighten the mobilization for today's final
showdown scheduled for the ATS in down town
Monrovia. Thousands of CDCians are expected to
troop to the ATS like gravel ants as they did on
July 15 during the arrival of Amb. Weah, from the
United States. He has obtained his first ever
bachelor's degree to participate in this years'
elections as Vice Standard Bearer of CDC, having
previously served as Standard Bearer of the CDC.
While the CDC may be contemplating "creating
holiday" in Monrovia today for total victory, the
Unity Party says it's Sunday rally is directed at
producing a political 'tsunami' that will rock the
entire country on Tuesday, October 11 for a first
round victory.

This daily news review is compiled by African
Elections Project (AEP) Media Monitoring Center at
LMC, Monvrovia, Liberia

Source - African Elections Project

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