Political commentator Henry Pedro Costa has claimed that if President Elect Joseph Boakai is not fit to be inaugurated in January 2024, there might be fresh presidential election.
Mr. Costa claim was made in the comment session of a live Talk Show streamed on Facebook by SKTV when the panelists on the show were discussing Mr. Boakai’s trip to the United States of America before his inauguration in January.
Since the announcement of Mr. Boakai’s trip to the US was announced, there has been widespread rumor that the President-Elect is traveling to the United States for medical reasons, but his office, in a release said Mr. Boakai was traveling to the United States to hold “consultations with stakeholders in the political process of Liberia including the Unity Party in the United States and Canada to thank them for the massive and unwavering support given the Unity Party Alliance in the election.”
The Claim
These are Mr. Costa exact words: “Doctors told us then that recovery will take 6 to 9 months. I have spoken with lawyers. If he’s not fit to be inaugurated on January 22nd, there might be fresh elections, the Supreme Court would have to decide because there’s no president.”
To verify the claim, we firstly decided to establish whether the comments were made by Henry Costa. We reviewed all the 67 comments and 14 reactions that were made on the show and did not see any comment or reaction from Henry Costa.
We also reached out to Mr. Costa through WhatsApp with a message asking him whether he has made such comment or reacted to the SKTV show, the message was delivered to Costa, he viewed it but decided not to respond to our inquiry.
Rating Justification
However, we verified the claim in the screenshot that if Mr. Boakai is unfit to be inaugurated in January there will be fresh election and found it to be misleading. To arrive at this, we reviewed article 63 of the 1986 Constitution of the Republic of Liberia.
We review the text of the Liberian Constitution in regard to Mr. Costa’s claim and conclude that his claim is misleading. To arrive at this verdict, we reviewed Article 63 of the 1986 Constitution of the Republic of Liberia.
Article 63(a) of the Constitution states that “Whenever a person elected to the office of the President dies or is otherwise incapacitated before being inaugurated into office, the Vice President-elect shall succeed to the office of President, and this accession shall commence a term.”
This means, if President-elect Boakai is incapacitated to be sworn in as President on inauguration day in January 2024, his Vice President-elect Jeremiah K. Koung will succeed him as President and will begin the six-year term in office.
Article 63(d) also states that “Whenever the office of the Vice President becomes vacant by reason of death, resignation, impeachment, inability or otherwise, the President shall, without delay, nominate a candidate who, with the concurrence of both Houses of the Legislature, shall be sworn in and hold office as Vice President until the next general elections are held. Whenever the Vice President-elect dies, resigns, or is incapacitated before being inaugurated, the President elected on the same ticket with him, shall, after being inaugurated into office, nominate without delay a candidate who, with the concurrence of both Houses of the Legislature, shall be sworn in and hold office as Vice President until the next general elections are held.
Conclusion
Based on these constitutional provisions, we conclude that the claim made by Henry P. Costa that if President-elect Joseph Nyumah Boakai is not fit to be inaugurated in January, there might be fresh elections is misleading.
If the President-elect is incapacitated to be inaugurated in January, his Vice President-elect Jeremiah Koung will succeed him as President of the Republic of Liberia and will begin the term in office as President as provided by Article 63 (a) of the Liberian Constitution.
Editor’s Note: This report has been updated
This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content