Liberia: Weah’s Party Chair Jabs Boakai, Cummings

The Chairman of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change, Mulbah Morlu, has mocked Joseph Boakai and Alexander Cummings for the delay in selecting running mates, saying “they are not prepared to contest the presidency.”

Morlu’s indirect criticism was aimed at the two prominent opposition leaders who pose a threat to his party’s incumbency in the upcoming October 10 election, which is expected to be a closely contested affair.

Boakai and Cummings, leaders of the opposition Unity Party and Collaborating Political Parties, respectively, have yet to announce their running mates, raising concern among their supporters with  many now questioning the rationale behind their strategies.

Morlu, while joining the discussion, expressed his disappointment with the opposition candidates for not being able to make a decision on their running mates soon. 

He went on to say that the delay showed that the opposition leaders are not ready for the challenges that lie ahead and it would be disastrous for Liberians to vote them, considering their struggles with naming a running mate. 

“We are not the lazy opponent that is still jointly struggling to find a running mate. If they will take forever to find a running mate, it means they were not prepared to even contest the presidency,” Morlu said at a voter registration rally by the  Liberia People Democratic Party (LPDP), which is a constituting member of the ruling party.

“It is a risk, a national security risk, to give our country to people who are ill-prepared to lead our country. People who cannot name their running mates ahead of the elections.”

Morlu’s remarks come as the ruling party has decided to retain Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor, as running mate to President George Weah. 

However, public reaction to his remark has been mixed, with some applauding his frankness, while others have criticized him for being disrespectful to the opposition candidates.

It remains to be seen how the opposition candidates will respond to Morlu’s comments and whether they will announce their running mates soon. But with the elections just a few months away, time is running out for them to make a decision. 

Morlu’s jab also comes at a time of crisis in the ruling coalition, a tripartite arrangement between the former ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP), Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), and Liberia People Democratic Party (LPDP). 

The crisis is due to the refusal of the political leader of the Liberian People's Democratic Party (LPDP), former Speaker Alex Tyler, and Senator James Biney, chairman of the National Patriotic Party, to renew the framework document that holds the Coalition together for six years. 

Both Tyler and Biney, natives of Maryland County, claim that without their signatures on the document, anything to the contrary is invalid, suggesting that an approved and signed framework document has yet to be produced.

However, the ruling party has rejected the accusation, saying the relevant constituted leaders of the three parties with the backing of its executive committee members had resigned the Coalition framework document, paving way for the three parties to once more contest the 2023 elections under one umbrella. 

Vice President Taylor and a few other executive members of the NPP, excluding Biney, signed the framework document in February on behalf of the National Patriotic Party; while Moses Kollie of the LPDP did the same without the involvement of his political leader.

However, Morlu and his supporters insist that there are no issues with the framework documents.

Meanwhile, Morlu has claimed that the threat to his party's rule after its first six-year term is not from the leaders of the country's opposition, but from his own party's partisans.

He revealed that the threat lies in the possibility of a large number of his party's supporters failing to register during the ongoing voter registration exercise, which is scheduled to end on April 9 in six out of the 15 political subdivisions of the country.

“You CDCians (partisans) that may not register become a risk to the collective commitment of our party to win the presidency,” Morlu warned. “In short, you have to register. Do not delay registration; that decision should be made now.”

“If you have to crawl to register, do so, if you have to swim, please do it. No matter how you do it, every CDCian must register before the process closes.”