Liberia reschedules senate vote for December 20 despite Ebola

Reuters
Bystanders read the headlines illustrating the battle over the holding of elections in Liberia amid the Ebola crisis at a street side chalkboard newspaper in Monrovia, December 2, 2014. REUTERS/James Giahyue

MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberia will hold delayed senatorial elections on Dec. 20, the National Election Commission said on Sunday, a day after the Supreme Court ruled the vote should go ahead despite the Ebola outbreak in the West African country. The country's highest court suspended campaigning for the planned Dec. 16 vote last month while it considered a petition from a group that included some former government officials and political party representatives. The group had warned that electioneering risked spreading the highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever, which has killed more than 3,000 people in Liberia. “The National Election Commission in collaboration with political parties and candidates has set Saturday, December 20, 2014 as the new date for the conduct of the special Senatorial election," the commission said in a statement. A total of 6,583 people have died from the disease in three states in West Africa -- Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia -- of 18,188 cases. (Reporting by Alphonso Toweh; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Catherine Evans)