9/16/2020
NATIONAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION V AMOS SIEH SIEBO-MOTION TO DISMISS-FINAL JUDGMENT –
Commissioners of the NEC is Article 79(c)(iii). The Article
provides that: “No association, by whatever name called, shall
function as a political party, nor shall any citizen be an
independent candidate for election to public office unless the
headquarters of the association or independent candidate and
his organization is situated in the electoral center in the
constituency where the candidate seeks election as a member of
the House of Representatives or to any other public office.”
Furthermore, the Nomination Committee, during its hearing into
the respondent/appellant’s application, also found that the
respondent/appellant had been arrested and charged by the
Liberian National Police with the crimes of criminal conspiracy,
theft of property and offenses relating to fraudulent Registration
Cards, in violation of various sections of the Penal Law of
Liberia, and that the case was still pending before the Magisterial
Court. As such, the Committee noted that in the absence of the
respondent/appellant providing satisfactory clarity on the
resolution of the criminal charges levied against him, a further
basis existed for denial of his application. Hence, it concluded
that in addition to the other ground stated, coupled with “public
policy reasons”, it was rejecting movant/appellee’s application,
and thereby not allowing him to contest the representative seat
for the district for which he had applied. Considering the
informational importance of the Nomination Committee’s ruling,
we quote same verbatim as follows:
“THE DECISION OF THE NOMINATION COMMITTEE
On July 25, 2017, the Nomination Committee heard the matter
involving Representative Aspirant Amos S. Siebo, Jr. The
Members of the Committee are: Dir. Jospeh Yassiah; Cllr. John
Wonsehleay and Atty. Cephas N. Teewia.
That on July 20, 2017, Aspirant Amos S. Siebo, Jr. submitted his
Nomination application to the National Elections Commission
(NEC) to contest the 2017 General Elections as a Representative
candidate in District #1, Montserrado County. During review of
his nomination documents, the scrutiny committee observed that
the Aspirant did not have an office in District #1 where he was
contesting as a candidate and, that the species of evidence
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