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polling place #3 was brought for recounting; that before the counting the LP
candidate had zero vote but after the recounting the LP candidate had 28 vote.
The Complainant tenth witness is Jurah Sanoe who provided the he saw
people with voter cards that were denied the right to vote; that the voting
process was disorganized because there were no queue controllers.
The Complainant eleventh witness is Jefferson Gbadyquille who told the
Hearing that he went to the Suakoko Central High School from morning to 7:00
PM moving from one line to another and did not vote because his name was
not found in the book. The Complainant twelfth witness is Omaru Kamara an
LP poll observer in Lofa County who told the Hearing that during the counting
at Yallahhun Town, District #2, that on two occasions ballots belonging to the
LP candidate was giving to the UP candidate, that when he insisted and it was
corrected; that an invalid ballot was giving to the UP candidate, and when he
insisted, he was told to take a complaint form.
At the closed of the Complainants evidence, the Complainants submitted for
admission into evidence Hearing marked instrument C/1-C/23. The Complaints instrument were duly admitted into evidence.
The Unity Party it's Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates were made
parties to the action filed by the Liberty Party and its candidates through the
reversion of the Hearing Officer's ruling denying them the right to intervene.
The Intervenor/Complainants in their complaint confirmed all of the
allegations raised in Liberty Party's complaint but pray that the Commission
set a new date, other than November 7, 2017, for the re-run of the presidential
election, but that the aforesaid re-run date be such that inauguration of a
president-elect and vice president—elect will take place on January 15, 2018.
After the granting of this intervention by the Board of Commissioners on their
first appearance file before the Hearing Officer an Affidavit for the Subpoena
of the following Individuals and materials to prove their complaint, copy of the
final registration roll and addendum to the roll, copies of presiding officer
work sheet and several others. The Hearing Officer entertained argument on
this application and granted those that are logical, reasonable and practical
and denied those that are either criminal or irrelevant to the
Intervenor/Complainant's case.
On the Intervenor/Complainants' second appearance, they filed a Motion for
Compulsory Joinder of all other Presidential candidates and political parties
that participated in the 2017 Presidential and Representative Elections. This
motion was argued and denied.
At the November 11th sitting of the Hearing, the Intervenor/ Complainants
made an opening statement summarizing their allegations after which they
presented a list of sixteen witnesses to prove their case. Of the sixteen
witnesses, the Intervenor/Complainants only presented witness Wilmot Paye
who took the stand after qualification and provided the following testimonies;
that long before the elections, the Commission had admitted to difficulties
and challenges but informed the political parties that those were simple issues
that could be addressed; that the NEC did not publish the Final Registration
Roll; that he registered but when he went to vote, his name was not found in
the FRR and the Staff wrote down his name and allow him to vote; that
hundreds of his supporters were angry because they were denied their right
to vote; that the Registration Roll that was presented to political parties were
completely different from what NEC had.