AFRICAN PANORAMA
Introduction:
When the 53rd Liberian Legislature takes seat on January 9, 2012, the majority of members will be first timers. This is reflective of the fact that only 25 (39.06%) of the 64 members of the House were reelected.
The situation is even worse in the Senate, where only 2 of 14 incumbent senators who sought re-election retained their seats. This is not a far cry from their colleagues in Nigeria, where only 36 of 109 Senators were returned during the April polls. This is generally the result of the people’s resolve to compensate their leaders for the “good work” they have done for their people over the years. Because of the population threshold set up by the 2008 census, the membership of the House grew to 73, reducing the number of returning members to a mere 34.1%.
This tragedy is reflected in all parties, including the ruling Unity Party and major opposition groups. Ten parties & independents are members of this legislature. The incumbent Unity Party, though entered the 52nd legislature with 8 members, got 11 of their party candidates returned, and had an additional 12 members.
This also considers the fact that a number of previously UP legislators won in different parties.
From the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), which had 15 members at the beginning of the last term, only 3 were returned with the CDC, while 6 new members got elected on their standards. Also, a number of their previous members contested through different parties and lost-think of Regina Sokan -Teah, Victoria Lynch, Kettehkumuehn Murray, Titus Barclay, Jackson Flindor, Roland Kaine.
The Liberty Party which showed 8 House members during the last term, returned only 2 directly, and one of their previous members returned as an independent. However they brought 5 new members.
Altogether new members came from equally new parties/political movement as the National Democratic Coalition (NDC), the Movement for Progressive Change (MPC), among others, as well as some old faces like the Alliance for Peace and Democracy and the Liberia Destiny Party. Independents retained their strength by providing 8 members, including 2 who even previously came onboard as independents and one who drifted from his party. Independents ably showed their face across the country from Grand Gedeh to Nimba, Montserrado, and Bong to Grand Bassa.
While many victories were as slim as 15-18%, some reps, including 2 newcomers had margins beyond 50%, with the most significant being George Mulbah from Bong County who gathered 82%. The woman with the highest percentage in the House was Haja Siryon of Bomi, (famous for her challenge to former Speaker Edwin Snowe: "And you Snowe shut up, you like to interrupt people”), who got elected with 45%. Generally, the woman of the races was Geraldine Doe Sherif of the CDC, who earned up to 52% of the votes.
Women in the new legislature have not had any gains, as only 2 of the 8 women (Corpu Barclay- Bong and Haja Siryon – Bomi) got reelected. Montserrado, which had 4 women, this time succeeded in electing only 2 new women( Josephine Francis and Munah Pelham). That aside, the only other county with more women was Gbarpolu, where former Superintendent Gertrude Lamin (UP) and current Senate staff Malai Gbogar (LP) were victorious in 2 of 3 races. Otherwise, the showdown for women was in Voinjama District, where the two top contenders were women – Mariamu Fofana won, just over Ruth Kpadeh.
2. Why the colossal loss for lawmakers?
It is not yet time to conclude on what caused the vast majority of lawmakers to lose in their reelection bid. Howbeit, public sentiments are showing that the people have not been comfortable with the decisions make during the stewardship of the 52nd Legislature. The public was especially spirited during debates on particular issues, and in many instances the people lost, while the lawmakers were exalted.
Running on a few, we will recall that the legislature was especially unpopular during the following debates:
• Budgets (whichever year)
• Threshold
• Concessions Ratification – Sime Darby, Western Cluster, SIFCA
• Code of Conduct
• Confirmation hearings in the Senate
• Motions for reconsiderations
• Review of the Snowe Bribery allegations
• Darius Dillon Whistleblowing (both in the House & Senate)
Of interest is the fact that two concession agreements featured prominently during the elections – The SIFCA in Maryland and Sime Darby in Grand Cape Mount. Advocacy against the SIFAC concession is Pleebo, Maryland caused Rep. Bhofal Chambers his standing as the leader of UP lawmakers on Capitol Hill. He eventually resigned from the party, when the agreement was signed against his advocacy. He joined the main opposition CDC and the people renewed his term with a wider mandate than he received in 2005. Chambers, running with the UP in 2005 received 2,601 or 29.4%, and in 2011, when he crossed to the CDC, he received 4,171 translated as 41.1%. This advocacy also saw the defeat of Senator Gloria Scott, who received 6,135 this year, as against 6,933 in 2005.
Also, the drawbacks of the Sime Darby concession in Grand Cape Mount did only cause the local representative and incumbent senator their seats, but equally destroyed the ruling party’s candidate who had incidentally been the Minister of Land when the agreement were passed. A banner posted at Madina, close to the Sime Darby Plantations read: “our land or our votes?”
Beyond these community based news were claims and counter claims about bribery being at the center of concession ratification. Two lawmakers who were linked to allegations of concession related bribery, the LP’s Kuku Dorbor and CDC Alomiza Ennos were told squarely in their faces – no way!
In addition, all lawmakers linked to the bribery scandal teeming around the removal of Snowe as Speaker were not returned.
• Samuel Bondo left the LP and joined UP in the face of these allegations – he lost the UP primaries, moved on to the NDPL, and still lost out.
• Kettehkumuehn Murray left the CDC for the UP, lost primaries and even the seat when he later joined the All Liberia Coalition Party (ALCOP).
• Saa Gbollie lost out in his back yard in Harbel, and was the next day tending his farm in rural Montserrado.
Participation could also be said to be part of the problems, given that lawmakers accused of not returning home were not returned to the Capitol. There were also claims and counter claims about poor attendance by law makers. Following separate reports issued by the Justice & Peace Commission and the Liberia Democratic Institute, there were widespread condemnations and denials by the concerned lawmakers. The celebrated case of the “Bobo Lawmaker” became a case of jest, symbolic of lawmakers, who simply collected allowances and went on holidays, yet had no records of making any contribution to the debates. But on the contrary a number of quite loud lawmakers were not returned.
3. New Membership
The ruling UP has 23 members and may have the blessing of some allies from across party lines. A combination of the CDC with 9 seats, independents with 8, the Liberty Party with 7, among others, could see the opposition coming with as much as 50 seats, which would easily mean House Leadership.
With 48 altogether new members, there is also likelihood that new members could have especially significant roles in the leadership. With this mix, and given the tendencies that brought the near collapse of the previous house, new member would reasonably be cautious of the coalition they would form towards their work.
Claims of bribery that inundated the initial leadership arrangement of the 52nd and its subsequent collapse are a special red flag that should be noted. At this stage, Liberians are looking forward to the changes that they effected on the 11th of October 2011, and would want to see action from the start.
A number of new members have come forth with a variety of expertise, including the media, academia, law, sports, etc. New members also include a beauty queen, a traditional zoe, and people who were recently refugees. While this mix is in the majority, it would need the experience from those who had previously served, to make leadership in the legislature one of substance that would work for the greater good of the country.
With this new configuration, the issue would now be on how to ensure that the 53rd is significantly better than the 52nd, not only in term of membership, but in terms of the results that emanate from their legislations, decision making and oversight. Also of significance that the new body would be reviewed for is the relationship with constituencies. This is from the background that some of the legislators with the highest national profiles were flatly rejected by the people, whether at their party primaries or later during the general elections. This should be cause for caution by new members when it comes to dealing with their voters.
4. Issues
a. Documentation & Voting Records: To date, other than reading (partial) during the opening of sessions, records of Legislative proceedings have not been very public. To an extent, this limits public understanding of what their lawmakers are doing. Like the case of the Sime Darby Concession, outgoing Rep Mohammed Ware argued that he did not support the concession, but there has been no record to prove that. Aside from the debate, voting has generally been by show of hands – again greatly limiting records of who voted where, how and when.
In order to prove to their constituencies that they are really voting in their cause, the new lawmakers would do well to ensure that their rules requires that voting on national issues are by roll call. In this way, the people will know who voted against the code of conduct or delayed the passage of the threshold bill.
b. Contempt and Conduct: While previous legislatures were keen to hold officials of government on interested parties in contempt of legislative proceedings, they were quite ironically oblivious of defining official conduct. A primer in this regard would be determining (at least by law) how officials should respond to lawmakers and vice versa. Otherwise, rules for legislative proceedings do not apply to individual citizens.
c. Budgets & Audits: Debating the government budget, inclusive of the operating budget of the legislature, has been a most contentious issue. Ordinarily, the budget arrives at the House approximately one month to the start of the next fiscal year, and almost upon instinct the House requests the report of the performance from the previous year and the struggle begins. Whether from the Taylor years or across the Sirleaf first term, the story has been the same – the budget year begins before the passage of the budget, at times by as much as 2 months late.
For the ordinary citizen, passage of the budget had been delayed by the legislature, and most believe that lawmakers do not really care that the budget should provide specific services for the communities. This keeps them contemptuous of the legislature/legislators until they can see something tangible otherwise.
Moreover, budgetary debates tend to focus on the document as a whole, unlike other climes, where the debates are ran from thematic points by various committees. The latter is better for two reasons – the first being that it speeds up the process and the second reasons relates to the fact that thematic reviews will provide closer scrutiny and strengthens understanding and expertise, in time for decision-making and oversight.
Additionally, the legislature’s role in strengthening transparency and accountability has all but been stalled by limited reference to itself. Aside from media reports about the exchange of cash, even within the legislative chambers, reports from international groups talk about the exchange of money in such issues as the ratification of concessions. Claims about salary scheming even within the legislature (legislators and staff) has not been unjustified, yet very little has been done - at least in the face of the public - to address these concerns. The 53rd legislature would do well to address those issues, and then move on towards strengthening the national audit program.
d. Lawmaking: As has been across Liberian history, legislations emanated from the executive, and were mostly passed with limited scrutiny. There were fewer private bills passed into law. Most private bills were held up. According to the JPC Legislative Report Card, the following bills, which were mostly privately introduced, were not passed: the Act “to amend the Public Safety Law of Liberia” prohibiting phone driving and a bill establishing the “African Cup of Nations Commission” for the hosting of the African Cup of Nations Tournament in Liberia. Notwithstanding, a civil society application for a freedom of information law got passed and signed over a two-year period, and suggests that that could be the way to go.
Additionally, lawmaking, especially within the context of reforms, was not strongly brought forth. This is reflected in the defeated referendum propositions, which were not seen to be the most relevant for the times. In terms of reforms, the incoming legislature will need to consider such issues s term of office, considering the length provided for the president and senators. While the simple majority got passed at the referendum, the quality of wins (15%) requires that some modifications be made.
5. Committees & Leadership
a. Committees: Records from succeeding legislatures have shown that committees were set up to eventually account for each member. This is laughable and does not make room for efficient. Best practices from the United States Congress, through which several lawmakers and staff had study experiences, show that the 435 member House of Representatives have only 21 committees, with 5 held jointly with the Senate. On is own, the 100 member United States Senate has 16 committees, with 4 select committees. Notwithstanding the “limited” number of committees, all members are still accommodated on various committees of interest, and to an extent provided sub-leadership roles. In this way committee work would be effective, and the lawmakers would still have time for constituency relationship, which is a strong option in legislative work.
On the other hand, experiences from Liberia show that members are on multiple committees, at times barely finding time to link committee work to representation functions. As a result, some lawmakers are nationally characteristic, while domestically non-conforming. Many of these people did not get re-elected. Senators Blamoh Nelson, Gloria Scott, Richard Devine; Reps David Saydee, Armah Sarnor, Edwin Juah.
Guided by the legislative modernization plan, the 53rd could do well to make committees effective by reducing their number, and to encourage committee membership more by choice and interest than by political consideration.
b. Leadership: Most of these issues would make much sense when the drivers put up a liberal democratic posture, more towards the proverbial “Lift Liberia” than towards strengthening our individual or partisan position. At current standing both chambers cannot be seen to acknowledge a majority for any one party. This means reasonable coalition effects should come into place to ensure positions. This is quite similar to the last plebiscite where majority was only a matter of different numbers and not as a controlling factor.
For the senate, where laws would permit only a newly elected member to assume the role of President Pro Tempore, reasonable options would be limited to the CDC’s Geraldine Doe or Sinoe County’s Joseph Nagbe. Another option would be Taylor time returnee Armah Jallah. Other than these scenarios, I cannot be sure the senators would want to take a leader who is coming on board for the first time. Again, that is determinant on the coalition efforts that would come into play. On the day of sitting, the ruling UP would have 12 seats. This is devoid of any alliance that may have gotten up over time.
In the House, the ruling Unity Party’s 23 seats cannot give them the speakership. They will require another 14 seats, which will need to be drawn across party lines. However, as experience from the 52nd shows, a loose coalition from all angles could as well provide the speaker from anywhere. In a doomsday scenario, the 36 new members who do not come from the UP could insist upon a major power sharing arrangement by blocking any election. Mind you, they are only one vote short of a majority. In the sad event that one of the returning 4 delinquent member stays away, the die would already be cast and in steel.
Indications are not very clear that the UP has any candidate other than the current Speaker, but his relations with colleagues are a determinant of his future role, whether with members of his intake class or freshmen.
Given that the presidential polls are pretty tight, members of the legislatures should be keen about their choice of leadership if we together desire a more participatory and better functioning legislature.
Notwithstanding all the rhetoric, the turncoat attitude, whereby the “opposition” crosses over to the ruling party to form part of the gravy would just as well diminish the stature and respectability of the assembly.
Reminders
• seen with Ruth Perry et al change to the NDPL after 1986
• Seen with David Kortie et al alliance with the NPP after 1997
• Seen with the jump of UP membership in the House from 8-40 between 2006 and now
Experiences again from the 52nd have shown that a single direction does not make the legislative process any simpler. This complexity has rather had no basis on logic or issues, but rather ends up like all other concessions and related claims of bribery.
Party leaders, which is present in most legislatures around the world, was especially absent from the 52nd, but active during the 51st. It is fair to consider that Senator-elect Sando Johnson, who came to limelight upon his ascendancy to the Majority Whip of the House, would propose the reintroduction of party floor leaders in the new rules of the Senate. That could even spur the replication in the House.
6. Other interesting facts
The three counties of River Cess, Cape Mount and Gbarpolu held the record of changing their entire slate, while Bomi has an entirely Unity Party slate for the House.
Three legislators hold the magic wand of getting elected though they could not get the nomination of their previous parties:
• Richmond Anderson admits he was Unity Party, but felt aggrieved and moved to Liberty Party, and won a seat.
• Gabriel Smith lost the Liberty Party primaries, resisted the results, and went on to win as an independent.
• AV Conneh of the NPP –Montserrado could not get fielded by his party, but won as an independent.
While these folks were lucky in their insistence, others who shifted their allegiance did not have the same charm, especially outgoing members--Victoria Lynch, Regina Sokan-Teah, Roland Kaine, Armah Sarnor, Jackson Flindor, Elmond Barclay.
The last of the consecutive or near consecutive Taylor era lawmakers were removed, by the defeat of Maryland Representative David Saydee (LPP- 1997, UP-2005), Senator James Momo from Cape Mount (NPP) and Senator Nathaniel Williams (initially Grand Gedeh, River Gee -2005). Senator Williams had actually joined the 52nd Senate in a by-election. But as they left, other key politicians from that era entered the Capitol in style. The articulate Secretary General of the NPP John Francis Whitfield comes as the Senator from Grand Bassa, accompanied by former Lofa Senator Armah Jallah, who returns as Gbarpolu Senator, Maryland Superintendent of that era Dan Morias, is now the Senator from that county, as well as the tough talking House Majority Whip Sando Johnson, who is poised to join the Senate in no small role.
Family members will also be in t
he House this term, when incoming Montserrado Representative AV Corneh joins his brother, Bill Adam Corneh, who has succeeded for his second term for Bong County.
7. Conclusion
The diversity of incoming members of the legislature, including the fact that sitting members lost out in colorful polls, symbolizes the people confidence in elections as the means of granting authority. That people who were in leadership at one point can be returned at another time shows that the people are ever ready to determine how they are governed. The results further show that the Liberian people are determined to allow a diversity of leaders, who will articulate their aspirations from varying perspectives. As many of the new comers contested the previous elections, the people may have been reviewing their choices to improve upon their decisions, all in the hope of making their communities better. Some of those who won this time around did not leave the communities, even after their defeat in 2005. This spurred the confidence of their people, thus the reward. This is further confidence in the electoral process, which would get better as the time goes forward and with more experiences in elections as the mode of evolving leadership in Liberia.
8. References:
Elections 2011: LDI Viewpoint # 1
Liberia Democratic Institute (LDI)
September 2, 2010
Elections 2011: Critical Perspective
“Digging into the Annuls of Electoral Democracy”
Liberia Democratic Institute (LDI)
January 25, 2011
National Tally Center Report for the11 October 2011 Presidential and Legislative Elections.
NATIONAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION
Monrovia, Liberia.
National Tally Center Results Report for the 11 October 2005 Presidential and Legislative Elections.
NATIONAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION
Monrovia, Liberia.
Constitution of Liberia, 1986
TOWARD A MORE ACCOUNTABLE GOVERNMENT: ISSUES FOR THE 53RD LIBERIAN LEGISLATION
November 7, 2011
By K. Abdullai Kamara
