Continuing about the voting…..When everyone had finished voting, all were invited to come back into the conference space to watch the county. They watched as the clergy and lay ballot boxes were opened and mixed together. Then one of the Norwegian visitors was stationed behind the box to pull out each ballot. Three others from the US sat in chairs near the box and held baskets.
Each basket represented one of the three remaining nominees. A fourth basket received voided ballots from time to time. Patrick Friday from the General Board of Global Ministries had the “honor” of reading the names and placing the ballot in the respective basket. It took a long time. We were amazed at the stamina of Patrick as he kept reading the names. Many in the crowd were keeping tallies.
Then the ballots in each basket were counted. The basket holder moved the ballots from one place to another while Patrick counted out loud – 1 to 100 then over again as long as it took. The drama was increased two or three times by the lights going out. Flashlights from smartphones came on immediately trained on the ballots. The lights came on again in a few long moments. When the counting was over, the tally was Rev. Samuel Quire – 581, Rev. David Tokpah – 509, and William Labala 429. That eliminated Rev. Labala. So the other two names will be sent on to the West Africa Central Conference being held next December. Liberia is the only conference that needs a new Bishop. 20 delegates from each of the four central conferences for a total of 80 will decide who the next Bishop is.
We were glad when it was over. Even though it was late, we were taken to the guest house for a late supper. Then we went to our housing where we began to do our packing.