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.
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