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By Lincoln G. Peters
Capitol Hill, June 5, 2026: River Cess County Senator and stalwart of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), Bill Twehway, has submitted a bill titled the “Democratic Pluralism and Electoral Inclusion Amendment Act,” seeking to amend and permanently repeal the highly restrictive 2% vote-threshold penalty introduced in Chapter 5A of the 2014 Amended Elections Law.
In his communication to the Liberian Senate on Thursday, June 4, 2026, Senator Twehway described the bill as a critical piece of reform legislation aimed at fortifying peace, expanding Liberia’s democratic space, and safeguarding the fundamental constitutional rights of all Liberians.
He believes that the bill’s introduction will correct historical and structural imbalances in the Liberian electoral framework. Specifically, the amendment seeks to permanently repeal the highly restrictive 2% vote-threshold penalty introduced in Chapter 5A of the 2014 Amended Elections Law.
Under the current law, any political party or independent candidate failing to achieve two percent (2%) of the national vote faces an outright ban from nominating candidates for two successive election cycles—effectively a death sentence spanning up to twelve years.
He argued that such a provision does not protect democracy; rather, it limits democracy, creates an artificial political monopoly for established parties, silences regional, minority, and emerging voices, and forces ordinary Liberians to vote out of fear of wasting their ballots rather than out of true ideological conviction.
“True democracy thrives on absolute inclusion, not state-enforced exclusion. This proposed Act establishes that ballot access is a permanent, inalienable constitutional right that cannot be revoked by historical numerical metrics or immediate electoral underperformance. Furthermore, this legislation modernizes and strengthens Chapter 4, Section 4.10 of our election laws,” Senator Twehway lamented.
Highlighting the importance of his bill, he disclosed that it explicitly guarantees accredited political party and candidate observers absolute rights to physical proximity, protection against arbitrary expulsion by polling staff, and the unrestricted right to digitally record and verify tally sheets.
He further stated that by empowering observers inside the polling rooms, they build absolute transparency, restore public trust in the ballot box, and transition political grievances away from the streets and into peaceful, verifiable, and rule-based systems.
“Madam President Pro Tempore and Esteemed Colleagues, our country’s stability is rooted in ensuring that every Liberian, no matter how small their constituency or how niche their ideology,
feels they have a peaceful, lawful stake in our national discourse. I urge you all to support this legislation in the supreme interest of deep political pluralism, national unity, and the unyielding defense of our democratic freedoms”, he concluded.
