The Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) will once again be holding its general elections this year. Over the years, this organization has been a stepping stone for many Liberian politicians in their quest to gain positions of trust amongst the Liberian populace, here in the US and in Liberia.
But have you wondered how the delegates for this all important convention are chosen? Have you wondered how presidential candidates are elected at a convention to a position that is believed to be so important for Liberia’s future? To get that information, a copy of ULAA’s elections guidelines was obtained from the Union’s website.
To compile this article, several functionaries of ULAA and other members of various Daispora communities were interviewed. One member reiterated that the selection of delegates may be a local policy issue and not connected with ULAA guidelines. It was also gathered that the process for accrediting delegates varied from chapter to chapter. One would think that the process would be uniform considering the age and importance of such an organization.
Now, just for the public to understand, there are completely two different procedures for determining who get to be a delegate in a state to attend ULAA’s elections. One procedure is stipulated in the guidelines on ULAA's website and not used, the other is based on local state politics with no set procedures. The latter is what has been used since time immemorial.
Going by the local politics route, no candidate should even campaign in states. They have no reason to seek votes by showing face or donating to some worthy endeavor. The reason is that states local policy allows the president to hand pick delegates who vote for the ULAA president, so once the states' president is on a side, the campaigning ULAA's president’s work is done. It is known that ULAA's campaigning presidents have called states' leaders to add certain delegates to lists.
Now just to educate the public on what this means, this article will cite paragraphs from the elections guidelines. The elections guidelines tell us exactly what should be done in the process of choosing who should serve as delegates during the ULAA general elections. And by all means, this document should be a document for all chapters.
Section 1 states, “In an election year, each chapter Elections Commission shall conduct primaries for the purpose of electing delegates who shall be accredited to vote in the Union’s general or special election. The ULAA Elections Commission shall publish election timetable for all chapter primaries.
The document goes further to say in Section 9:
Each local commission shall publish a special election guideline and election timetable in its chapter for the holding of chapter primaries at least two months prior to the holding of the primary. The guidelines shall establish registration requirements for candidates, how election will be conducted, when polls will be opened and closed, how to file and dispose of protest(s) and the grounds for disqualifying candidates and or nullifying an election result. Each local commission shall make reasonable efforts to distribute the election guidelines to chapter members and shall also make reasonable efforts to duly inform chapter members about the chapter primary.
Section 2 of the document, states, “Each chapter shall accredit voting delegates to vote in a Union’s general or special election proportional to that chapter’s membership strength. A chapter shall accredit one voting delegate for every ten members whose names are printed in the ULAA Voter’s roll for that chapter. Election of voting delegates for a chapter shall be determined by the votes received by each candidate. Only candidates with the highest votes won in the chapter primary shall be accredited by the chapter as voting delegates. All accredited delegates shall physically be present to cast ballots in a general or special election of the Union.
What does this mean, “Each chapter shall accredit voting delegates to vote in a Union’s general or special election proportional to that chapter’s membership strength? This means that if ULAA’s roster has 200 Liberians of which Liberians in Minnesota are about 20, then Minnesota should have a ten percent representation on the voter’s list, Ohio with 10 for example should have five percent and so forth and so on.
Considering what the document is saying, if there are going to be 100 delegates to the elections, Minnesota should have 10, and Ohio 5, etc. Please note that the numbers above are arbitrary.
Considering how it is done now, candidates should campaign directly to states’ leadership, since it is the presidents that appoint the fifteen delegates across the board that go to the convention to vote for the ULAA president. There is really no need for debates and around the country campaigning, the communites have been robbed of their say considering that the delegates are hand picked.
The Liberians in various states do not have a say in ULAA elections according to the current ad hoc selection process. The presidents of the organizations have that say. In conversations with ULAA election watchers, it has been this way in many states for a long time.
This is the process with which ULAA presidents have gotten states votes in the past and may be getting it come September.
What happens if the results of the ULAA elections are contested based on the above? The guidelines again are ambiguous, it says in Section 15, “The Union Election Commission shall have the right to nullify and declare void the election result of a voting delegate(s) or a proxy delegate(s) if the commission determines that said election was not held consistent with provisions of the Union’s Elections Law that relate to the holding of chapter primaries and or the guidelines published by that chapter’s Election Commission for that primary. Nullification of election result(s) by the commission shall be done within one week after the announcement of election results for a chapter primary. However, the commission shall only nullify and declare void an election result consistent with Article IX Sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 of this election law and or if the commission determines that the chapter election guideline was grossly violated which resulted to the election of a candidate who would not have been elected. The chapter election Commission or the aggrieved candidate(s) shall have the right to appeal to the ULAA Electoral Panel within 48 hours after the commission shall have announced its determination regarding any aspect of each chapter primary. The electoral panel shall hear and dispose of all appeal within a one week period as of the date of receipt of the appeal.
Interestingly, upon closer inspection, Article 9 has no sections 7-11. It stops at 7.
It is urgent upon the current ULAA leadership to take the guidelines down from their official website if it is not what is being used, it should be dispensed and a vigorous education or overhaul of it as a political document should be done.
It is scary that an organization as old as ULAA would have operated in this fashion for so long with gross disregard for its own election guidelines and its people. It is no wonder that administration after administration have had problems with leadership. If this is how business has been, then it is safe to say that many leaders of ULAA may not have been the choice of Diaspora Liberians after all.
You may review the ELECTIONS LAW OF THE UNION OF LIBERIAN ASSOCIATIONS IN THE AMERICAS at http://www.ulaaliberia.org/ELECT06LAWS.htm
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