After several delays in hearings, the Liberian Supreme Court decided Saturday to refuse to halt Senate elections scheduled for Tuesday, according to The New York Times. A petition had been filed to halt the vote because of the Ebola crisis.

Two of five justices dissented, however, saying that holding an election in the current climate would be dangerous for voters -- in potentially increasing transmissions of the disease -- and said an election would be a violation of civl and political rights.

Ultimately, the final word was that the court said its role was not to make decisions on political affairs.

"It is not our place to decide whether it is appropriate to conduct elections at this time or any other time," said Chief Justice Francis S. Korkpor.

The court had suspended campaigning for almost two weeks while it considered the petitions which stressed the unsafe environment for voters.

On one side, Justice Phillip A.Z. Banks, who was one of the dissenting, said the election commission is disregarding the health and welfare of the Liberian people.

On the other hand, the chairman of the National Elections Commission, Jerome Korkoya, alone with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, believe the country will face a constitutional crisis if elections do not go ahead as planned.

The court did not specify if the elections would take place on the original date, Dec. 16, or if it could be postponed until a later date.

Korkoya said he would meet with the members of the election commission and all relevant parties to discuss a new date for the election.

Sirleaf had recently ordered a ban on campaigning in the capital of Monrovia, due to rallies stages by the opposition party which had filled the streets.

"What the lawyers need to understand is that the election is very crucial to the nation and is time-bound," a legal expert said according to AllAfrica. "Therefore, nobody should accept any delay tactic that would send us back to the dark days out of which our country has come."

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