THURSday, JUE 17, 2010: The Carter Center FOI mission team has visited with select members of the National Legislature prior to their regular Thursday plenary session. The meeting was a follow up meeting intended to sensitize Legislators on the speedy passage of the bill given its essentialness to the governance in Liberia.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Cllr. T. Negbalee Warner hailed the House for their cooperation on the advancement of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill to date. The team comprised of the Deputy Minister of Information, Mr. Norris Tweh, Press Union of Liberia President Peter Quaqua, AGENDA Director, Jasper Kummeh, LDW Director George Wah Williams, CENTAL Director Thomas Doe Nah, TCC Consultant, Cllr, Negbalee Warner and TCC-FOI National Coordinator Mr. Aphonsus Zeon.

The team met with Representatives, Gabriel Smith, Byron Brown, Bhofal Chambers, Armah Sarnor and House Deputy Speaker Togbah Mulbah. During the meetings the team stressed the urgency of advancing the process of the bill passage given the essentiality of the bill to the advancement of democracy and research and society. The representatives expressed their individual support for the bill and committed themselves to supporting the passage once the introduced in the floor of plenary.

Meanwhile the representatives have issued a caution to the team declaring that no issue will be place on the floor of the plenary until a decision is made on the Electoral Threshold Bill which has lingered between the three branches of the government including the unprecedented intervention of the Supreme Court to the actions of the Legislature. The team continues its visitation in the week ahead.

Meanwhile, LDW kicked off the second phase of its 2010 NED Grant activities on Friday, June 18, 2010 with the holding the first of four live debates at the Power FM Studios, on Carey Street, Monrovia. The dialogue under was held in collaboration with the Liberia Media Initiative headed by Mr. John Kollie.

The first dialogue brought together Hon. Gabriel Smith of Grand Bassa County, Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Elections and Inaugurations who was up against Cllr. Boakai Kanneh, a constitutional legal practitioner.

The two met under the theme: “The Population Threshold Bill: Examining the Controversy between  Consitutionality, Shifting Population Density and National Economics”. 

The debate broght out the contradictions and strengths in each componenet of the topic  considering the basis for the protracted delsays in the passage of the Population Threshold Bill and the impact of this on the 2011 eleections and related activities. 

For his part, House Committee Chairman blamed the mechanitions of Executive Branch of Government for the delays stating that there were hidden fears about the outcome of the census and the distribution of the popualtion as reflected in the threshold that generated the suspicion  and fears of the Executive considering their weaning popularity especially in Montserrado and other urban areas. 

On the other hand, Cllr. Kanneh infomed the audience that inspite of Executive’s  shortsighted stance on the matter, the oneness was more on the Legisalture and that peoples’ power could force them to muster the requisite numbers to override the vetos of the President in time for the holding of elections come 2011.

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