Liberia: “PLP Has No Alliance With CPP,” Cassell Clarifies

Dr. Daniel Cassell, Standard Bearer of the People's Liberation Party (PLP)

 
By Moses D. Sandy

Dr. Daniel Cassell, the standard bearer of the opposition People's Liberation Party (PLP), says the party has no alliance with the shattered Collaborating Political Parties (CPP).

Dr. Cassell says the FrontPageAfrica (FPA) newspaper’s publication on Monday, August 1, 2022, which claims that the PLP has joined the CPP, is untrue.

The Paper, in a lead news story captioned, "ANC Requests the People’s Liberation Party to Join CPP," reported that on July 29, 2022, the National Chairman of the PLP, Tapple E. Doe, in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), Senator Daniel Naatehn, conveyed to the Senator that the Party’s decision to join the CPP was made recently in Monrovia.

According to the paper, Chairman Doe reportedly informed Chairman Naatehn that the PLP Executive Committee and the General Policy Commission (GPC) met and unanimously endorsed the decision.

However, in a press release issued on Wednesday, August 3, 2022, the PLP Standard Bearer denied the media report. He termed the publication attributed to the PLP National Chairman, Tapple E. Doe, and Secretary General, Daniel Gayou, as unfortunate.

Meanwhile, when the Daily Observer contacted the FrontPageAfrica editor, Mr. Lennart Dodoo, he said it may be possible that PLP have some internal wrangling, but based on their story and an authentic letter written by the chairman of the PLP to the chairman of the ANC, informing them that they have accepted the invitation to join the CPP, “so, we stand by our story until PLP can officially clarify their own communication.”

He said he was not aware of such a decision. Dr. Cassell maintained that “any decision to join or form collaboration can only be done by the Standard Bearer convening a special convention that will bring together the PLP leadership from all of the counties in Liberia.”

He clarified that even though the leadership of the PLP is in receipt of an invitation from the ANC to join the CPP, neither he nor the executives of the party have taken any decision on whether to accept the invitation or not. On July 21, 2022, the ANC extended the PLP an invitation to join the CPP.

He said: “The PLP is open to every possible collaboration that would be based only on new terms, conditions, and frameworks.” He said if the PLP is to proceed with any negotiation for the possibility of collaboration, such negotiation will be from a “position of strength”.

According to Article V. Section 5.1 [(a) GPC] and 5.3 [(2) GC] of the PLP constitution, Dr. Cassell has veto power over decisions made by the General Policy Commission (GPC) and the Governing Council (GC) that seek to undermine the Party's stability and its chances of assuming state power.

The CPP is currently on the brink of collapse. The Collaboration was established a few years ago by four opposition political parties after President George Manneh Weah and the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) administration ascended to the political leadership of Liberia. The founding members of the CPP are the Unity Party (UP), All Liberian Party (ALP), Liberty Party (LP), and the Alternative National Congress (ANC). The once vibrant and powerful CPP's primary objective is to make Mr. Weah a one-term president.

For now, the CPP membership includes the ANC and Chairman Musah Bility’s faction of the LP. The UP, ALP, and the LP faction of Senator Nyonblee Karngar-Lawrence/Political Leader have since walked away from the collaboration. They broke away from the political union a few months ago due to internal strife.

Meanwhile, Dr. Cassell is calling on all national executive members, county chairpersons, and partisans of the PLP in Liberia to remain hopeful and focus on the discharge of the duties and functions of their respective offices as he prepares to return to Liberia soon.