The spokesperson of the Unity Party campaign, Mohammed Ali, has buttressed recent statement from Nimba County Senator Prince Johnson about plans of rebellion if the government of President George M. Weah rigs the upcoming elections.
He said the Senator’s statement was conditional, disclosing that the former Vice President Joseph Boakai is strongly in support of Johnson’s assertion, and said, “Are there expectations that elections will be rigged? Because the man said if elections are rigged. If the elections are not rigged then there will be no need for trouble.”
Sen. Johnson, the political godfather of Boakai’s running mate, Senator Jeremiah Koung, had earlier this week in a Facebook live video noted that the turnout at the UP Alliance campaign launch on September 17 was a clear demonstration that Liberians want a change of government and that any attempt to change the results would be meet with resistance.
“First and foremost, let me make it abundantly clear and assure you that any plans or attempts to thwart the will of the Liberian people by stealing these elections will be forcefully resisted by us, the people of Liberia, and the international community, which has invested so much in the peace and stability of this country,” he warned.
Ali, buttressing the Senator in an exclusive interview with Daily Observer recently, believes that once there is no plan for the governments to rig elections, there is no need to panic.
“If there is no plan for election rigging, why should Senator Johnson’s statement cause panic? I don’t see any problem with Senator Johnson’s statement. “If elections are rigged, people will get angry,” he said.
“Nobody should have the free will to thwart the will of the Liberian people. So he said ‘if elections are rigged’ — we don’t expect that election should be rigged.”
Meanwhile, Senator Johnson’s statement re-echoes Boakai’s emphatic declaration of his preparedness to resist any electoral fraud come October 10.
Boakai, who also took some solace in the recent statement made by the US government regarding safeguarding the integrity of these elections, noted that “any plans or attempts to thwart the will of the Liberian people by stealing these elections will be forcefully resisted by us, the people of Liberia, and the international community.”