Liberia’s long-awaited constitutional referendum: Debate on alternatives to by-elections

Seven years after Liberia’s former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf established a Constitutional Review Committee to comprehensively review Liberia’s 1986 Constitution and make proposals for reform/amendment, the country is yet to conclude the process of reform. For years, activists have called for a comprehensive reform of Liberia’s constitution to make provisions for new generation of rights such as rights on citizenship, women’s rights and political participation and the decentralization of power to local tiers of government. The process has been inconclusive largely due to a lack of consensus among the political leadership on the constitutional future of the country. Also, the lack of political support and commitment from Sirleaf herself to the reform was evident as her Government did not provide adequate financial and political support to the work of the Committee. For the bulk of its financing, the Committee relied on international donors whose support were determined by their own intervention objectives. Continue reading...