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Liberia's Supreme Court on Friday ordered senatorial election campaigning by political parties and independent candidates to be temporarily halted over fears of the further spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
The indefinite moratorium was announced only hours after thousands of Liberians took to the streets of capital Monrovia to attend the official launch of the campaigns of two senatorial candidates: Robert A. Sirleaf, son of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and former football icon George Weah.
The mass rallies, however, violated health regulations ordered by Liberian authorities aimed at preventing the spread of Ebola, which in recent months has run rampant in the West African country.
One of the preventive measures imposed by local health authorities – and supported by the World Health Organization – is a ban on mass public gatherings.
According to an Anadolu Agency correspondent in Monrovia, thousands of Weah supporters converged on the headquarters of his Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) to cheer their candidate.
The area still teems with his supporters, many of whom can be seen standing on cars and bringing traffic to a standstill.
Liberians will go to the polls on December 16 to elect 15 of 30 sitting senators whose terms will expire in the second week of January, in accordance with the country's constitution.
Weah and Sirleaf are among 11 candidates vying for the seat of Montserrado County, which includes capital Monrovia.
The election had initially been scheduled for October 14 before being postponed by Liberia's electoral commission over Ebola fears.
In recent months, Ebola – a contagious disease for which there is no known treatment or cure – has killed roughly 5,459 people, mostly in West Africa, according to the World Health Organization.
At least 2,963 of these deaths were registered in Liberia alone.
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The scene outside the CDC's headquarters prompted the government to express its frustration over frequent violations of public health regulations.
In a statement, Deputy Information Minister for Public Affairs Isaac Jackson warned that supporters of certain senatorial candidates were gathering in large crowds, thereby increasing the risk of the further spread of the virus.
Such gatherings, he added, represented a serious violation of the country's health laws and National Elections Commission guidelines.
He went on to warn that such violations warranted penalties of 30 days in prison and fines of $200.
But many critics say the government failed to follow its own guidelines by allowing elections to be held at all before Ebola was entirely eradicated from the country.
Observers, however, have pointed out the difficulty of penalizing the thousands of people who turned out to support their candidate on Friday.
Jackson, for his part, said political parties and campaign organizers – along with the candidates themselves – would be held responsible for their supporters' conduct.
With the Ebola crisis still ongoing, many Liberians have called for delaying the scheduled poll until the country is declared free of the disease.
They believe that there can be no electioneering without the large crowds, handshakes and other physical contact by which Ebola is believed to be transmitted.
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www.aa.com.tr/en - Monrovia
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