MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) – Senate elections have been suspended in Liberia after the election commission of the Ebola-hit country admitted it would not be able to ensure voters' safety, organizers of the Liberian elections said Thursday.
"[A] mass movement, deployment and gathering of people" could not go ahead in Liberia without endangering the lives of its people," the organizers said as quoted by AFP.
The Senate elections were due to take place in Liberia on Tuesday, October 14. The country's election commission said a new date for the elections will be set before the end of the year, if possible.
Liberia's upper house of parliament is composed of 30 senators. Half of them were elected for 9-year terms in 2011, with the other 15 seats having been scheduled to go up for election this year.
Liberia is currently battling an Ebola virus epidemic, which started in southern Guinea in February and has since spread across West Africa. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the death toll from the epidemic has surpassed 3,800.
On Wednesday, Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, who was the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, died at a hospital in Dallas, Texas.
There is no officially approved medication for Ebola, which is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals. Several countries, including the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom are currently working on developing Ebola vaccines.
