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an appeal to the Supreme Court for review; and that as such all of the first
complainants were supposed to be before the Supreme Court. They assert that
under the law, all of the first complainants remained parties to the suit or
proceedings unless and until they are dropped, either by motion of a party or on
the initiative of the court, none of which they say occurred in the instant case. As
such, the fist complainants remained as a unit in the proceedings.
The appellee makes the argument that notwithstanding all of the foregoing
showing that the first appellants were still a unit and that none of them had been
dropped, either at the instance of a party or by the NEC; and since the recognizance
which the Elections Law requires each of them to pay to the NEC, a mandatory
appeal obligation which none of them could escape from, was done for only Charles
Walker Brumskine and Harrison S. Karnwea, the presidential and vice presidential
candidates on the Liberty Party ticket, in the amount of US$5,000.00 and no other
persons. The appellee claimed that since there were sixty-seven (67)
Representative candidates fielded by the Liberty Party and all of them were
purported to be part of the first complainants, each should have deposited a
personal recognizance with the NEC of US$2,000.00, making a total of
US$134,000.00, instead of UN$5,000.00 that was deposited. The NEC therefore
regarded the recognizance entered into between it and the first appellants to be
defective and therefore a ground for the dismissal of the appeal of the first
appellants.
The Election Law, in respect of the claim of the appellee and which the
appellee states forms the basis for its motion to dismiss the appeal of the first
appellants states:
“The contestant shall enter into a recognizance for payment of cists
incurred on the appeal in the following amount:
(a) With respect to election of a president or vice president, the
Liberian dollar equivalent of five thousand United States dollars
($US$5,000.00)…
(c) With respect to election of a member of the House of
Representatives, the Liberian dollar equivalent of two thousand
United States dollars (US$2,000.00).”