Evidence Grows in Liberia of Vote Fraud by Regime

MONROVIA, Liberia — Evidence is mounting here that the Liberian government of Samuel K. Doe is engineering a large-scale election fraud in order to remain in power in this West African nation.

Last Tuesday, approximately one-third of Liberia’s 2.1 million people spent hours standing through the heat of the day to cast ballots in what was billed as the first truly free election in Liberia’s 138-year history.

A week later, many Liberians are expressing a mixture of anger and frustration at continuing charges that Doe’s supporters are involved in skullduggery apparently aimed at extending his rule.

An element of suspense has also entered into the political picture--not so much over the outcome of the election, but over how the Liberian electorate will respond to a result that so many feel has been clumsily and obviously rigged.

There is also a growing feeling of suspense about how the United States will react when the results are announced. Washington heavily pressured Doe to hold the election in the first place.

The United States is the leading donor of aid to Liberia, but Congress has ruled that further appropriations for the country are dependent on “free and fair elections” and a return to civilian rule.

One of the leading opposition party candidates met Tuesday with U.S. Ambassador Edward Perkins. The substance of their conversation could not be learned.

Doe, a former master sergeant in the Liberian army, led 17 fellow noncommissioned officers in a 1980 coup that overthrew the civilian government of President William R. Tolbert Jr., whom Doe’s forces then killed.

Opposition Liberian political figures say they are concerned about how the public might react to a patently bogus election result. They will not be specific about their fears but are apparently worried about anti-government demonstrations to which the regime would respond with force.

“It is becoming an outlaw situation now,” an opposition party leader said. “We can’t protect ourselves. We are up against the government, against people who are armed.”

The most recent revelation to fuel the suspicions of Liberian voters is evidence, delivered to several Western embassies Monday, that ballots marked for Doe’s three opponents in the presidential race had been burned at a village 60 miles outside Monrovia. This apparently occurred after trucks bringing the ballot boxes from up-county opposition party strongholds were diverted by lieutenants of Doe’s National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL).

Newspapers have published photographs of the charred ballots, which opposition parties say were replaced with ballots marked for Doe. Usually reliable political observers supported claims by political parties opposed to Doe that ballot boxes were stuffed with ballots marked by Doe supporters.

“We have independent confirmation,” said one of them, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, “that Liberia Action Party votes were taken out and stuffed with NDPL ballots.”

Leaks from inside the Doe camp, the same source reported, indicate that Doe and officials of his party have even decided on what they feel is a plausible result for the vote. According to their plan, Doe would win the election with 45% of the ballots cast. His closest competitor would be Liberia Action Party candidate Jackson Doe (no relation to Samuel Doe), with 40%. The remaining 15% of the vote would be split between the two other presidential candidates.

Solidarity Elusive

Perhaps in response to the sense of revulsion that is apparent among a broad cross-section of the Liberian public, the solidarity of Doe’s own inner circle seems to be cracking, with some top figures privately conceding that they were defeated at the polls. They also report a sense of nervousness at the “mansion,” as the president’s office is called. They say that some security personnel have been dismissed and that others are on 24-hour alert status.

Meanwhile, much of the public’s attention has been drawn to the daily activities of the special election commission formed to oversee Liberia’s return to civilian rule. The man Doe chose to head the commission, former Ambassador Emmett L. Harmon, has issued rulings and statements that seem to favor Doe’s party.

Harmon dismissed complaints that soldiers were voting at military compounds without observers from opposition parties present. Opposition parties said their poll watchers in some cases were driven off the military areas at gunpoint. Harmon also rejected allegations that the soldiers in some cases were voting more than once.

He also dismissed complaints that illiterate voters in rural polling places were being denied secret ballots and were asked in many cases--sometimes with journalists observing--to declare their vote aloud in a room full of watching officials. Opposition parties charged that such voters were intimidated into voting for Doe and other candidates of his party.

Harmon’s most recent controversial step was taken in apparent disregard of laws written especially for this election.

Special Counting

Over the weekend, he appointed a special 50-member committee to count the ballots, even though the election law specifies that ballots were to be counted at the polling places, at the close of voting and under the observation of representatives of the contending parties.

The results of those counts were to be transmitted to election headquarters, which would then tabulate and announce the results.

Harmon said he was taking the step of appointing the special committee because he needed “people I can trust.”

At least 18 members of this committee are said to be members of Doe’s tribe, the minority Krahn, who represent about 5% of the Liberian population, and most of the rest have some business or political connection with Doe. Over the protests of opposition parties, Harmon has sequestered members of the committee in a hotel 15 miles outside the capital, where they are to remain until they have counted the votes.

There have been reports also of ballots being removed in the night from the election commission headquarters in Monrovia, and of trucks delivering ballots to military installations. Opposition party figures say the ballots that were burned over the weekend had come from rural Bong and Nimba counties, which are widely believed here to have voted overwhelmingly against Doe.