According to our correspondent, the Chairman of the OLM Election Commission, Mr. T. Benedict Giple to the shock and dismay of the many Liberian voters, discontinued the counting process after nearly 50% of the counting was completed. Mr. Giple packed up the ballot boxes and transported them to his residence without announcing when the counting process will result. He claimed that he was fatigued by the process.

The many Liberians our reporters spoke with, including several others who called up our offices made claimes of ballot tempering with and fraud. Mark Johnson a resident of Brooklyn park said he was disappointed with and had no confidence in the process. He said this behavious on the part of the OLM Elections Commission undermines the integrity of any results that would be announced later. He therefore advised that the entire process be declared null and void.

Another member of the OLM who identified himself as Mr. Joe Brown said there is nowhere in the world where elections are held, the counting process starts and is discontinued in the middle; with the chairman taking boxes to his private residence.

Ms. Florence Roberts a resident of New Hope said she believes that Mr. Giple decision to discontinued the process and take the ballot box to his residence was a clever scheme to manipulate the process in favor of his buddies and friends who are also members of the Kerper Dwanyen clique.

When contacted for comments the Chairman of the OLM elections commission, Mr. Ben Giple said the process had to be discontinued because he and other members of his commission were fatigued. He said the ballot boxes are well secured in the hands of the commission.

When asked about claims and allegations of election fraud and ballot tempering he replied, "they can claim whatever they wish, I don’t not care." Mr. Giple said he was fatigued and therefore had to discontinue. "I can assure them that the process will remain free and fair," he added. He said the counting process will resume today at 2:00 pm.

A poll representative, Mr. Eramus Williams, said he did not accept the decision for the election commission to discontinue the counting process because there were no guarantee that the ballot boxes were going to be kept in a safe place where no one would tempered with the process and that the election commission at the time did not say clearly when the counting process would resume. The election commission did not tally or disclose the number of ballot that were contained in the ballot boxes they took away.

According to election standards counting of ballots is never discounted in the middle of the process. This had never happened in the history of OLM election process. Compared to last three elections, this election had far less turn out and yet the ballots were completely counted on the same day. Why was this discontinue the count? Was this due to poor planning and just an opportunity to temper with the result? Where is the OLM heading? Elections Commissioners need to understanding that elections are characterized by doubts and apprehensions, to delay or discontinue a counting process is the worst mistake of any election commission can make. Indeed this undermines the integrity of the entire process.

Meanwhile the election Commission is to certify only nine of the fourteen for the OLM Board of Directors. It is not clear whether this trend will continue, because there is another box that needs to be counted.

 Supplementary Report

In a related development, the correspondent of the People’s News said the point at which the commission decided to discontinue that process the partial results stand as follow: