-Political pundits ponder, but ECC says the trending video is fake


By Jerromie S. Walters

The integrity and fairness of elections are the cornerstone of any democratic society. Like the National Elections Commission (NEC), the Elections Coordinating Committee plays a crucial role in ensuring free and fair elections by maintaining transparency, impartiality, and upholding the democratic principles. However, instances of electoral malpractice like what the Elections Coordinating Committee (ECC) Boss, Mr. Oscar Bloh, has been accused of.

Political pundits say Mr. Oscar Bloh, the Chairperson of the Elections Coordinating Committee, alleged hypothetical scenario and his involvement in electoral malpractice in favor of the opposition Unity Party (UP), compromises the democratic process. As revealed by the video which many have said Mr. Oscar Bloh is not the one that was in the midst of the UP supporters, seems to be dinning with the opposition Unity Party.

In the video that was firstly released by the Secretary General of the Coalition for Democratic Change, Mayor Jefferson Koijee, the individual that is accused of being Mr. Oscar Bloh,  was seen and heard discussing with Mr. Konneh and strategizing means to manipulate the system in favor of the opposition Unity Party (UP), ahead of the November 14 Run-off election.

Prior to the disclosure of Mr. Bloh’s alleged  unprofessional act and even after, Mr. Amara Konneh, the former Finance Minister and recently elected Senator of Gbarpolu County articulated the UP’s desperation to go any length, including the one Mr. Blohwas caught up with, to ascend to the presidency.

As many have said, this alleged action of Mr. Bloh has the proclivity to manipulate the vote counting process, either directly or indirectly, by tampering with electronic voting machines, misplacing or miscounting ballots, or influencing the counting staff to favor the opposition party. Unarguably, it undermines the principles of transparency, fairness, and equal representation, leading to a distorted outcome that does not accurately reflect the will of the people.

However, in an official statement dated Thursday, November 9, 2023, the ECC says the trending video is fake and malicious, and that the person in the video is not Cllr. Oscar Bloh. Cllr. “Bloh has never visited the data center or “war room” of any political party, including the UP, and he has never had any conversation or meeting with Mr. Konneh.”

“The attention of the Elections Coordinating Committee (ECC) has been drawn to a video circulating on Facebook and other social media platforms in which the producer claimed that the Chairperson of the ECC, Cllr. Oscar Bloh was in the “war room” of the Unity Party (UP). The caption in the video and social media posts of one Mr. Manual Fle Chea also falsely claimed that Cllr. Bloh was in conversation with Mr. Amara Konnehintending to conspire with some workers of the National Elections Commission (NEC) to steal the pending run-off election.”

It continues- “The ECC assures the Liberian people, its international development partners, including USAID and the Embassy of Ireland, and all political parties that it will never compromise its independence and will remain a non-partisan national domestic observation group. The ECC will continue to conduct its observation in a neutral and professional manner and update the Liberian public accordingly. We are committed to providing an independent assessment of the credibility of the conduct of elections in Liberia.

In the meantime, the ECC has started its step-down training of election observers across the country to observe the runoff election on November 14, 2023 and will update the public about observation findings in the coming days.

The Elections Coordinating Committee (ECC) is Liberia’s largest domestic election observation network with diverse competencies, experiences, and expertise in democracy, elections, and governance established since 2010. ECC’s members include the Center for Democratic Governance (CDG); Center for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP); Center for Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding (CECPAP); Institute for Research and Democratic Development (IREDD); Naymote Partners for Democratic Development (NAYMOTE-PADD); West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP), and the Women NGO Secretariat of Liberia (WONGOSOL).

UP’s IT Specialist Arrested

Synonymous to Bloh’s action, in its Thursday, November 9, 2023, edition, FrontPageAfrica reported that  Communication Technology (ICT) expert brought into the country by the opposition Unity Party to train poll watchers and data entry clerks has been arrested in River Gee County for alleged election meddling. The local paper says it gathered that the UP’s IT expert, Sumson Essien, Jr., co-founder and CEO of Swift Ghana, was traveling with three others from Maryland County, where he had gone to train poll watchers and supervisors in the Southeastern region.

The Unity Party performed poorly in the region, which comprises five counties, known to be the stronghold of President Weah, who is seeking another six-year term.

According to police sources in River Gee, the Ghanaian expert is suspected of meddling in the October 10 elections and is alleged to be planning to continue the same interference in the November 14 runoff. However, FrontPageAfrica has not been able to independently verify these allegations. When contacted for comments, Mo Ali, the spokesman for the Unity Party campaign team, confirmed the arrest. He stated that although Essien was arrested in River Gee on Wednesday, he was later transported to Harper, Maryland, and handed over to immigration authorities for protective custody. This action, according to Ali, was taken with the intervention of Senators Commany Wesseh and Boycharles Sogbie, among others.

Ali said Essien’s arrested was planned and triggered by spreading of falsehood that he had tampered with the National Elections Commission’s manual system to favor the Unity Party. “There was a malicious propaganda spread by the CDC claiming that the Unity Party had brought in a Ghanaian hacker to manipulate the NEC manual system to change results in our favor from the Southeast… They had him arrested,” Ali said. He said Essien was very instrumental, through his training, in preventing the rigging of election in Montserrado County was, therefore, asked to provide similar training in the Southeast. Ali informed FrontPageAfrica that a photo of their IT expert was provided to the police in the Southeastern region, labeling him as a wanted person.

He also alleged that about 500 android phones, which supervisors are supposed to use for communication with poll watchers at various polling centers, were confiscated by the police in River Gee County. Additionally, Ali said that samples of the ballot papers used by the Unity Party campaign team, traveling with the Ghanaian expert, were also seized by the police. Following the leaked video on Thursday, the Secretary General of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), confirmed that the Party has alerted the US Embassy near Monrovia on Elections Coordinating Committee Chairperson, Oscar Bloh’s association with the Unity Party.

Also, supporters of the CDC have suggested- “Oscar Bloh must be removed now as head of the ECC to save the integrity of our election. He’s found in the UP Wardroom.” “The ECC itself has been a group of UP surrogates for years. He’s here seated in this video with Amara Konneh, setting up the UP wardroom for November 14 election.”

Thursday’s scene from Maryland County

Mid Thursday, November 9, 2023, it was reported by some supporters of the CDC- “Unity partisans are stopping the police in Harper city from airlifting a Ghanaian suspect who is believed to be a hacker and has meddled with our electoral process in Monrovia.”

“According to the police report in Harper City, the suspect was caught with more than 100 telephones in his vehicle. This news validates my suspicions about the outcome of the October 10, 2023, elections. Unity partisans in Harper city have blocked the airport in an attempt to stop the police from doing their job,” a supporter writes.

“I am calling on all cdcians to get ready. This runoff election is going to be:

CDC vs UP, NEC, POs and NEC Magistrates. I still maintain that we won more than 50% of the votes on October 10, 2023. The numbers were manipulated by UP’s operatives at NEC and elsewhere. What’s happening to CDC is the result of the myth that there is something called government of inclusion that led our government to not being able to reshuffle strategic entities like NEC, NSA and the military. “I am warning our leaders, the bubble is growing and cdcians are getting fed up with one side of the political spectrum being the peaceful ones and the other side being the “don’t care ones”. They killed our comrades when we were in opposition and they still succeeded in killing our comrades this time in broad daylight while we are in power.During the days of John the Baptist, the Kingdom of God suffered violence and only violence can take it by force….this is the method they are using on us because we want to win Nobel Peace Prize at some point.”