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1975 Liberian general election

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Field	Value
country	Liberia
turnout	80%
previous_election	1971 Liberian general election
previous_year	1971
next_election	1985 Liberian general election
next_year	1985
election_date	7 October 1975
module	{{Infobox election
embed	yes
election_name	Presidential election
type	presidential
image1	William R. Tolbert, Jr..JPG
nominee1	William Tolbert
party1	True Whig Party
running_mate1	James Edward Greene
percentage1	100%
title	President
before_election	William Tolbert
before_party	True Whig Party
after_election	William Tolbert
after_party	True Whig Party

General elections were held in Liberia on 7 October 1975, alongside a simultaneous referendum on presidential term limits. In the presidential election, incumbent William Tolbert of the True Whig Party (who had taken office after the death of William Tubman in 1971) was the only candidate, and was re-elected unopposed. In the legislative elections True Whig Party candidates won all 74 seats in the House of Representatives unopposed. Voter turnout was around 80%.

The elections were the first after the eligible age of voters in elections was reduced to 18. It was a combined elections for choosing the President, Representatives of the House and the Senate. Independent observers claim that the elections in 1975 along with that of the earlier elections were rigged by the ruling True Whig Party. This is the last election in which the True Whig Party won a presidential election.

Electoral system

A Commemorative wrap of Presidents Tubman and Tolbert

The Legislature of Liberia was modeled on the Legislature of United States. It is bicameral in nature with a Senate and the House of Representatives. There are 15 counties in the country and based on the population, each county is defined to have at least two members, while the total number of members to the house including the Speaker being 74. Each member represents an electoral district and elected to a four-year term (six years after 2011 elections) based on popular vote.

To be eligible as a voter, one had to possess 18 years of age, registered on electoral rolls and own a real estate valued at least L$2,000. Persons who are of foreign origin, insane and convicted in crime were not eligible. The eligibility criteria to be candidate of a political party in the House of Representatives was residence in the country for two years continuously before the elections, ownership of real estate and should be 23 years of age. The eligibility criteria to be candidate of a political party in the Senate was residence in the country for three years continuously before the elections, ownership of real estate and should be 25 years of age.

Conduct

Independent observers claim that the elections in 1975 along with that of the earlier elections were rigged by the ruling True Whig Party. All the candidates of the Party during the elections were unopposed. In spite of no opposition, the number of eligible voters were enhanced by around 200,000, making the number of voters more than the number of eligible voters. There were no voter registries maintained during the elections and people were allowed to vote many number of times. A view has also been placed that the electorate lost confidence in the election system thereby leading to frequent political crisis in the country.

Results

Incumbent President Tolbert from True Whig Party campaigned that if they were re-elected to power, the government would work towards rural empowerment and the infrastructure development. Tolbert was re-elected as the president of the country along with all the candidates of his party for the House of Representatives and the Senate. During 1975, there was an amendment to the constitution that prevented a single person from continuing as president for more than two four-year terms.

House of Representatives

References

"Elections in Liberia". African Elections Database.
(2014). "About The Republic Of Liberia – Politics". Ministry of Information, Government of Liberia.
(1975). "Election results of Liberia, 1975". Interparliamentary Union for Democracy for everyone.
Kieh, George Klay. (2008). "The First Liberian Civil War: The Crises of Underdevelopment". Peter Lang.
(2001). "A Political Chronology of Africa". Taylor & Francis.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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