As elections campaigning heats up across Liberia for the upcoming 2023 presidential and legislative elections, a top United Nations official is urging politicians to up hold the Farmington River Declaration and remain peaceful.
Leonardo Santos Simão, head of United Nations Operations in West Africa (UNOWAS) and Special Presentative of the Secretary General for the Sahel told a press conference Wednesday called on Liberian political parties to refrain from any act of violence that will undermine the Farmington River Declaration (FRD) which several political parties were signatories to.
Early this year, politicians and political parties in Liberia in the presence of international partners pledged to maintain the peace and call on their supporters to stay away any election related violent activities.
20 years of Peace
However, Mr. Simão, recounting said Liberia has had a difficult pass years of civil unrest and it is now 20 years since the war ended and must avoid he reoccurrence such bitter past.
Commenting for further, he added that the main challenge is to maintain the peace so that the problems of the past cannot repeat themselves.
“This is the first election to be conducted without the United Nations, we have to show that the country is matured”, he added.
So, elections can’t be moments of risk, relapse of peace in the country. And therefore, all institutions we met with are fully aware of that,” Mr. Simao said.
He furthered that while Liberians should be lauded for allowing peace to their country, the international community was very instrumental in helping Liberia return to peace, and was still committed to support the country’s peace and development.
Liberia is expected to go to the poll for Presidential and Legislative Elections on October 10 ,2023 for the first time solely overseen by the National Elections Commission (NEC) and without UN mission since the end of the country civil uproar that ended two decades ago.
More than 250,000 citizens and foreign nationals were killed during Liberia’s civil crisis that last for 14 years.
Campaign Clashes
Recently a violent clash erupted between supporters of the CDC and UP, that resulted in injuries to several partisans from parties. Both political parties have since shifted blames on one another for the violent for the unfortunate situation.
In the wake of the recent clashes, the opposition Unity Party campaign team says it will consider as “threat” any partisan of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) around their vicinity less 100 meters away.
