Liberia Will Proceed With Senate Vote Delayed by Ebola

              Liberia — Senate elections that were repeatedly delayed because of the Ebola epidemic and legal challenges, and further complicated by a presidential ban on large political gatherings in the capital, will finally be held in Liberia on Saturday. Whether they will be fair, peaceful and safe is unclear.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has said the elections, first scheduled more than two months ago but postponed twice, must be held, otherwise the nine-year terms of half the members in the 30-seat Senate will expire with no successors, provoking a constitutional crisis. Critics have said mass gatherings at the polls raise the risk of more contagion that would aggravate the Ebola crisis, which had shown signs of easing in this country of four million.

Last Saturday, the Supreme Court agreed with Ms. Johnson Sirleaf, saying it would not halt the vote. “It is not our place to decide whether it is appropriate to conduct elections at this time or any other time,” said the chief justice, Francis S. Korkpor.

The elections are not only seen as a test of whether Liberia, one of the three worst-hit West African countries in the Ebola epidemic, can conduct the voting without inadvertently spreading an insidious disease. They are also seen as a barometer of Ms. Johnson Sirleaf’s popularity. The most hotly contested Senate seat pits her son, Robert, against George Manneh Weah, a former soccer star and presidential aspirant. The seat represents the capital region, where nearly half the country’s people live.

Clashes have broken out between supporters of Mr. Sirleaf and Mr. Weah in recent weeks, and the National Elections Commission has expressed concern about the possibility of violence in the lead-up to the vote. Ms. Johnson Sirleaf banned campaigning in the capital, ostensibly to limit the possibility of further Ebola contagion. But her order only raised suspicions that she was trying to tip the scales in favor of her son.

 “We are concerned about how effective and how transparent these elections will be,” said Oscar Bloh, the executive director of Search for Common Ground, an organization that will deploy 2,000 domestic monitors.
In another reflection of concern about the integrity of the voting, international organizations including the United Nations Mission in Liberia and the African Union issued a joint statement on Tuesday “calling on all stakeholders to help ensure all eligible Liberians are able to participate freely and safely.”

Liberia had been the country worst hit by the Ebola virus until recent weeks, when the rate of new cases and deaths appeared to slow, while in neighboring Sierra Leone, cases and deaths accelerated. Liberia still has the most Ebola deaths, 3,290, according to the latest World Health Organization data posted on Wednesday, but Sierra Leone now has the most cases, 8,356.

Special precautions will be enforced at polling stations to minimize the risk of Ebola infections, which are spread through physical contact. Voters must keep a distance of three feet from one another, chlorine hand-washing stations will be set up, and many voters will have their fingers swabbed with blue ink, rather than rolled across an inkpad.

The delayed vote appears to have hardened cynicism among young Liberians, who make up a large part of the population. Despite some excitement that Mr. Weah could defeat Mr. Sirleaf, who is seen as a child of privilege, some voters view all candidates with suspicion.

“They are not in the young people’s interest,” said Siegar Zeogar, 20, an apprentice electrician who shares a room in a Monrovia slum with six others.

“They are taking things for their own people. They are doing things for themselves,” he said. “Even this Ebola that is going on — they have their children overseas, while our schools are closed. Their children will go and come back tomorrow and rule us in this country.”