A female presidential hopeful who earlier this week accused the Liberian Foreign Ministry of delaying the approval of the articles of incorporation for her political party told VOA the ministry has now approved the papers.
Gladys Beyan said she and her supporters are elated by the approval of the papers of incorporation for her Grassroots Democratic Party of Liberia.
“We feel very happy; at least today we have become legal in the Republic of Liberia. The friends of Gladys Beyan are so excited and we give you (VOA) a big thank you, too, because our document was really hitched (delayed) and you put some heat around it to get out. We are very much thankful,” she said.
Beyan, who said she first submitted her papers of incorporation on 29th October, said waiting for the approval has been frustrating for her and her supporters.
“It was very, very frustrating not only for me, but for all the friends of Gladys Beyan throughout Liberia. I was getting calls from all the counties, from all the districts. They want to know because they want to really get into action with the party movement. This is dry season now. We want to start making party farms, little farms. We want to get into action,” Beyan said.
She said, throughout the process, she advised her supporters to be peaceful, not provocative.
Beyan said she and her supporters plan to go Thursday to the offices of Liberia’s Electoral Commission to submit papers for certification of her Grassroots Democratic Party of Liberia.
“As I speak to you, we are in the office trying to do some copying and to prepare everything. Tomorrow (Thursday) morning, we will be taking it to the elections commission. The requirement is to collect 75 names from the 15 counties, which we already have, and the articles of incorporation, our emblem, and our motto, the constitution. And then, we will add $500; they call it (a) processing fee, then put it in a package to carry to the elections commission, which we will do tomorrow (Thursday) morning, by the grace of God,” Beyan said.
She said, according to the elections commission guidelines, she should know within seven days whether her party has been certified or not.
Beyan told VOA Tuesday that Foreign Ministry officials may have delayed approval of her articles of incorporation because she and her supporters refused to pay what she called a $2,000 bribe.
But, Reuben Sirleaf, counsel in the Bureau of Legal Affairs at the Liberian Foreign Ministry, told VOA Wednesday that he did not ask for a $2,000 bribe to approve the papers of incorporation.
“Never have I ever asked anybody for anything. If you ask anybody who has been filing articles of incorporation, nobody will tell you that I, attorney Reuben Sirleaf, ever asked anybody for money,” he said.
He said he first came in contact with Beyan Monday, 22nd November.
“So, pray tell me, if you’re processing a document and you gave it to a lawyer and the lawyer gives it to somebody who is not even associated with the functions of the office, then you blame the office, then you go on the air causing all this damage on my hard-earned character that I built all these years. This is dangerous because many people who heard this interview started calling me to say, ‘Reuben, we don’t know you to be this kind of person. What is it that we are hearing?’ This is why I thought to call you to tell you the truth,” Sirleaf said.
