LIBERIA: UNITY PARTY CANDIDATE WINS NIMBA COUNTY

UNCLAS MONROVIA 000252

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/W-PDAVIS AND INR/AA-BGRAVES

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KDEM LI
SUBJECT: LIBERIA: UNITY PARTY CANDIDATE WINS NIMBA COUNTY
ELECTION

REF: A. MONROVIA 00174


B. 06 MONROVIA 01199


1. (U) The candidate of the governing Unity Party (UP),Evans

V. Koah, won the February 20 by-election runoff for the House
of Representatives seat representing Nimba County's District

6. The first round of the by-election was held February 6
(See Reftel A). Koah garnered 71.4 percent of the vote while
his opponent, Paul D. Tuazama of the Liberia Action Party
(LAP),obtained only 28.6 percent of the vote. There was a
voter turnout of 45 percent, slightly lower than the 48.9
percent in the first round.


2. (U) Emboff and Political Assistant visited 38 of the
total 54 polling stations. They observed the election to be
well organized and to be proceeding fairly. Like the first
round, United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) peacekeepers
and/or Liberia National Police officers were present at all
polling stations. Emboff and Political Assistant observed
that representatives from the 2 political parties with
candidates in the election were present at all polling sites
visited. Emboff and Political Assistant did not see any
representatives of civil society, but were informed by poll
workers that the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the
International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) had
staff observing the election. Political party
representatives at the polling places visited reported no
problems.


3. (SBU) The UP retained its seat in Nimba's District 6,
unlike the September 2006 Margibi by-election (See Reftel B),
where the UP lost its seat to a Congress for Democratic
Change (CDC) candidate. A factor might be that President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf visited Nimba before the first round of
the by-election, but she did not visit Margibi County before
the by-election was held there in September 2006.

Mazel