Despite the deadly Ebola outbreak, Liberia began campaign activities for the Special Senatorial Election, which will see 15 members of the senate elected in December. The National Elections commission said it would go ahead and conduct the election on December 16, 2014. “In keeping with the revised timeline for the 2014 Special Senatorial Election, the Commission is pleased to announce that political campaigns will commence on Thursday, November 20, 2014 and end 24 hours before Polling Day,” said Jerome Korkoya, chairman of the election commission. Supporters of former soccer star George Weah and Robert Sirleaf, the son of Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and a former head of the National Oil Company, turned out in their numbers to begin the campaign on Thursday in Monrovia. The President’s son will face Wiah in the race for senator of Montserrado County, in which Liberia’s capital is situated. Political rallies kicked off amid the sound of ambulances plying the streets, taking sick people to Ebola Treatment Units across the country.
Political rallies kicked off amid the sound of ambulances plying the streets, taking sick people to Ebola Treatment Units across the country.
Despite the kicking off of the campaign, health workers fear that such large gatherings associated with elections could trigger a rise in the epidemic. “With the crisis of Ebola, for me, in my personal mind, I don’t think that it is time for us to have elections in this country,” said Sam Bropleh, an ambulance driver of the First Responders Ebola team. “People still need to take the preventive measure. We are talking about public gatherings, people will be together, dancing, sweating, and touching each other. Going to vote you have to form a cue.”
But political parties officials continue to reassure the country that the campaigns will not endanger anyone.
Full Article: Liberian Senatorial Elections Defy Ebola – The Daily Beast.