Liberia’s Governing Party Wins Big

President Samuel K. Doe’s governing party won 30 out of 35 seats in Dec. 20 municipal and legislative special elections that were boycotted by Liberia’s four opposition parties, the Elections Commission announced Saturday.

Doe’s National Democratic Party of Liberia captured the six vacant seats in Parliament and won 24 of 29 mayoral races, including mayor of Monrovia, the Liberian capital.

Elections Commission Chairman Isaac Randolph reported an extremely low voter turnout. He said fewer than 30,000 people cast ballots of the 500,000 registered voters among the 2.2 million population of this West African nation.

Doe’s party was unopposed in 21 cities following withdrawal of the opposition United People’s Party two days before the elections. The United People’s Party claimed the Elections Commission violated the elections law, which says voters must be publicly informed of the locations of various polling centers at least 10 days before balloting.

The Elections Commission said the United People’s Party, led by former Foreign Minister Baccus Matthews, still captured one mayoral seat, while the remaining four seats were won by independent mayoral candidates.