Perhaps, the long-term endgame for LP/UP---and now this recent ruling by the Supreme Court--is to drag out the legal proceedings so that the runoff or rerun elections take place long after President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf leaves office on January 18, 2018. 

We are happy with the recent Court's ruling and let the NEC keep dragging its feet by prolonging the hearings and refusing to turn over to UP/LP pertinent documents that would validate their claims of fraud and vote-rigging.

With a reported over 50 cases pending before the NEC, the NEC has yet to complete one case since November 7. Obviously, UP/LP then will have 7 days after a case is finalized by NEC to appeal to the Supreme Court for final adjudication.

I told you before that this legal battle may not be over to allow new elections or runoff elections by January 18, 2018. And if UP/LP win their case of fraud against NEC, then of course the Supreme Court of Liberia will have to set a date and impose new conditions on the NEC to avoid a repeat of the mistakes that marred the October 10 elections.

Mostly likely, the Court may say 60 days or 90 days for elections, and demand the printing of new ballots with "serial numbers", publishing the new voter registration roster/roll two weeks in advance before voting day for proper vetting, etc. Some of these mentioned above, including a new  voter registration, will make sense to recue Liberia from Ellen’s shenanigan.

If this is after January 18, 2018, UP/LP may then ask the new Acting Head of State or Acting President--most likely the Senate Pro Temp-- to dissolve the corrupt NEC and appoint new NEC Commissioners. The new commissioners will then have to face Senate confirmation hearings.

Once there is a new "Acting President," he may then want to put his own stamp on the elections. He may say his administration will need six months to conduct the elections and that the government doesn't have the money to hold free, fair and transparent elections.

In addition, he may very well then ask our "international partners"--the United States and the European Union--for new funding for the elections, thus erasing any influence "former" President Ellen Johnson may have had on the old corrupt former and disgraced Jerome Korkoryah-led NEC commissioners.

With all that is unfolding, and lame duck President Sirleaf running out of time and options, my confidential sources both in Washington and in Monrovia told me Ellen wants to play the role of the Biblical Nicodemus, using backdoor channels in seeking to mend fences with Vice President Joseph Boakai, her most likely successor.

Ellen, my sources confided in me, wants to do a Charles Walker Brumskine on George Weah; to dump Weah as the UP/LP legal battle with the NEC is sapping away any momentum Weah and his CDC had from the corruption-tinted October 10 elections.

Ellen has also realized now that she does not have the backing of Liberia's international partners in her scheme to "monko-monko" the elections in favor of her anointed successor George Manneh Weah who are bitterly opposed to the political marriage of the CDC to Charles Taylor and his NPFL-NPP remnants.

Thus, Ellen's dream of "retirement" on January 18 with the pomp and pageantry she has been dreaming of, and turning over power to George Weah may simply be a dream only; derailed by the reality that the road to the Liberian presidency passes through Washington, DC, USA. But time will tell.

About the Author: Jerry Wehtee Wion is a journalist and political commentator, Washington, DC, USA

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