LIBERIA: UNITY PARTY GAINS SENATE SEAT IN GBARPOLU

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MONROVIA 001431

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM EAID LI
SUBJECT: LIBERIA: UNITY PARTY GAINS SENATE SEAT IN GBARPOLU
BY-ELECTION

REF: MONROVIA 1417


1. (U) SUMMARY. The Unity Party has gained a Senate seat
following candidate J.S.B. Theodore Momo's win in the
December 18 Gbarpolu County by-election, President Sirleaf's
party now has six seats in the 30 member Senate. Two Embassy
teams, along with UNMIL and several NGOs, observed the second
round and found that the election was as impressively well
run as round one was on December 4 (reftel). Voter turnout
was 35.2%, just under the 36% reported in round one. The
National Elections Commission resolved the problem in the
first round of some polling stations having too few ballots
for their number of registered voters. The election used the
2005 election voting rosters; therefore voters who were not
eligible to vote in the 2005 Presidential election had no
possibility to register for this election. With the large
number of war-displaced people who have returned to Gbarpolu
County and those who have turned 18 since 2005, some NGOs
estimate that more than half of the adult population was
unable to vote. The Unity Party spent heavily in the
election, but observers were unable to corroborate opposition
parties' assertions that government resources were used on
behalf of the party. END SUMMARY.

MOMO WINS, TURNOUT HELD FOR SECOND ROUND
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2. (U) Two Embassy teams observed the December 18 second
round of the Gbarpolu County by-election between Unity Party
candidate J.S.B. Theodore Momo and independent candidate
Armour Kanie Wesso. Momo won the seat with 70.5% of the vote
while Wesso took 29.5%. Voter turn-out was 35.2% (near to
the 36% reported in the first round).

ANOTHER IMPRESSIVELY WELL RUN ELECTION
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3. (U) Just as with the December 4 round one election,
Embassy teams visited 27 out of 90 polling stations and were
impressed at how smoothly and transparently the election was
run. They observed that all polls were fully staffed with
trained election personnel. LNP officers kept the lines
orderly and showed no signs of interfering in the process.
Voters at all polling stations had the left corner of their
voter ID card cut off and their thumbnail dyed as they voted
to prevent them from voting again. Vote counting was done
systematically at each site immediately following the poll
closure and the tally sheets were turned into the NEC.
Candidate representatives monitoring the polling sites told
the Embassy teams they were very satisfied with how closely
election procedures were being followed. All sites the teams
visited opened within ten minutes of the 8:00 AM start time
and closed on time at 6:00 PM. The NEC appeared to have
addressed the problem in the first round of a potential
shortage of ballots (reftel) by increasing the frequency of
supervisory visits to all polling stations. Supervisors
carried extra ballots in their cars and were on call to
respond to any shortage. There were no reports of any actual
shortages of ballots.

2005 VOTER REGISTRATION LISTS USED
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4. (U) NEC Co-Chairman Elizabeth J. Nelson told EmbOffs that
she considered it unfair to hold the by-election using voter
registration lists that had not been updated since before the
2005 Presidential Election, disfranchising all persons who
have turned 18 since 2005, whereas no one who has left the
county or died since 2005 has been removed from the list.
She noted that Gbarpolu County was particularly hard hit
during the war and had one of the highest percentages of
displaced persons in the whole country, and many of those
people have returned home since 2005. (Note: It is
difficult to assess how many of these are still registered in
other counties. End note.) IFES and IRI observers estimated
that up to half of the County's adult population was
systematically excluded from the election because they could
not register. (Note: Lack of current census data makes this
impossible to verify. End note.)


5. (SBU) Nelson said she felt so strongly about the need to
open registration in Gbarpolu County, she added USD 5 million
to the budget request simply to open the list. Her request,
however, was denied as the GOL wanted to start
re-registration of all voters nationwide following the
upcoming boundary harmonization exercise for local
municipalities and counties. She also said that NEC frankly
could not afford the USD 5 million for open registration for
this by-election because it would then set the precedent of
the need to pay for it for all future by-elections.


MONROVIA 00001431 002 OF 002


CAMPAIGNING MADE A DIFFERENCE:
CASH, T-SHIRTS, RICE, AND RIDES
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6. (U) Momo's victory was greatly helped by the campaigning
efforts of President Sirleaf and other Unity Party officials
in Gbarpolu County. Sirleaf visited a few campaign sites
near the county capital Bopolu on December 16. The
treacherous dirt road between Monrovia and Bopolu had been
substantially improved prior to her arrival. Her security
detail told us that she was passing out 20 Liberian dollar
bills (33 U.S. cents),Momo T-shirts, and bags of rice at all
the campaign stops. EmbOffs observed several buses of voters
being transported from Monrovia, reportedly financed by Unity
Party, in order to vote in their home county of Gbarpolu.


7. (U) Independent candidate Wesso could not afford even to
hire representatives to monitor all of the polling stations
and had few, if any, campaign goodies to distribute. He did,
however, walk the northern half of Gbarpolu County (most of
which is inaccessible to vehicles) and appealed to voters
there with a message of "I came here. They didn't. Who do
you think will represent your interests better?" Voters in
the North responded well by solidly supporting Wesso but they
were outvoted by the more densely populated South.


8. (SBU) COMMENT: Not all NGO observers believed that the
lack of open registration period stemmed only from budgetary
issues but rather a Unity Party effort to have the GOL
postpone new voter registrations for its own political gain,
in that the rural villagers, Wesso's base, were the ones that
were most likely displaced by the war. All NGOs agreed,
however, that the NEC had conducted an open, transparent,
free, and fair election with all the resources it could. We
have heard several complaints from the opposition that the
Unity Party used GOL resources in running the campaign, but
we have not to seen any concrete evidence of this practice.

Booth