May 2 – The completion of the election to find the successor to Musa Bility as the president of the Liberian FA is not getting closer after a Liberian court ruled that a stay order remained in place while it considered whether it had the jurisdiction to rule on a complaint that the LFA had overlooked procedures.
On April 14 the court stopped a run-off between Mustapha Raji and the vice president of administration of the LFA, Musa Shannon, who had obtained 16 and 13 votes respectively during the first round of voting. Raji, known to be the preferred candidate of Liberia’s national president George Weah, was reported by George Solo, a third candidate in the election, as not having the credentials to stand in the election.
Solo said the election commission had deliberately failed to address his complaint and so went to the national justice system to fight his cause. The LFA had procedurally been challenged throughout the election process for not following its own statutes with accusations that the vote was being rigged in favour of Shannon, a close associate of Bility.
In Liberian civil court, LFA lawyers argued that the court did not have the authority to rule on this matter. Lawyers for Solo countered that he had been denied due process (an argument frequently heard towards the LFA in this election), which they claimed was provided for in Article 20 (a) of the constitution.
They also pointed out it was a fundamental right for Liberians, as enshrined in the country’s constitution, and that Solo had exhausted all the LFA processes correctly to arrive at this point.
Jimmy Saah Bombo, lawyer for Solo, outlined multiple breaches of LFA electoral statutes by its election committee in court, arguing that even though he had competed in the first round of voting, that did not waive his right to protest.
The election remains in limbo while the court will decide whether it does have the jurisdiction to rule in the election process.
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