Opposition- Political leader Alexander Benedict Cummings has insisted that the Weah’s led Government must obey the constitution that govern Liberia as a nation.
Cummings, addressing a press conference in monrovia on monday, June 20, 2022, said he will ensure by all legal means that the George Weah led administration obeys the constitution by conducting the population census.
Recently the Liberian Senate committee on Autonomous agencies and commissions and the Liberian institute of statistics and Geo- information services (LISGIS) agreed for the fifth consecutive time to postponed the 2018 Census to March 2023.
Cummings- statement may come as a result of the latest postponement by LISGIS through the Liberian Senate, the census was schedule to be done on June 19,2022 but again postponed to next year March 2023, something the ANC Standard Bearer termed as “unconstitutional”.
Alexander Cummings said the conduct of the National Housing and Population census is an important constitutional duty of the government, and a tool for economic planning and development, it helps the government to decide where to build schools, hospitals, markets or drill new wells, among other things.
He added that the black of census truly undermines the constitution of Liberia and the Weah’s Government must conduct themselves to host the census.
“The result of the census, after every 10 years, shows how we will draw our constituencies so that in the House of Representatives, members will represent the actual people living in a constituency”,Cummings said.
He frowned that conducting the 2023 Elections without first conducting the census is not anything good for Liberia,” conducting elections without conducting a census is not good for our country, it is not good for development, and will mean we will be violating the constitution. If we do not do the census, the House of Representatives will be unconstitutional, Cummings said.
“If the house is unconstitutional, the legislature will be unconstitutional. We must conduct the census, and we must do it on time,Cummings warns.
Cummings, stress that the risk of postponing the 2022 Census will extend to calling into question the constitutionality of the elections in 2023, as well as the constitutionality of the entire government.” Therefore he will appealed to the International community to help the Weah Government with technical support, if they need it, to conduct the census. ” Again we can not emphasize this enough: not conducting the census before the elections will risk the constitutional legitimacy of the election in 2023, and its outcome. This will undermine Liberia’s peace and democracy, Cummings intoned.
The Liberian Constitution mandates the conduct of a census every 10 years, which amongst other important reasons, is needed for economic planning. The result of the census determines the size and demarcation of constituencies in the country, from which representation in the House of Representatives of the Legislature is important.
“It is also important because it is used to validate the number of registered voters at a precinct for elections. We will consult with our lawyers on the possible legal recourse available to compel the conduct of the Census, as required by the Liberian Constitution, in a timely manner.”
This round of census, which has been postponed five times already, should have been held in 2018. For one reason or another — including the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the availability of funding — the 2018 Census kept being postponed up to March 2022. And just before the March deadline, it was announced by LISGIS (Liberia’s statistics agency) that they would finally be ready to conduct the census in October 2022.
Liberia first four modern censuses were held in 1962, 1974, 1984, and 2008 being the last ones, revealed a population of 3.5 million, the highest in the country’s history. The first three revealed a population of t 1.1 million, 1.5, and 2.1 million people respectively.
In furtherance, Cummings has blasted at President George Manneh Weah for being careless and likes to excuse himself and his officials for the hardship in the country by blaming the opposition. However he said the fact that the weah government has not behaved in any way for credible international investors to trust him and his government to seriously consider investing in Liberia.
