With barely three months to the holding of the December 8, 2020 Special Senatorial Election across the country, the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) has given two-time defeated candidate in Nimba, Mrs. Edith Gongloe-Weh the “call to duty”. This means, Madam Weh is the favoured and only candidate to contest on the CPP’s ticket in the ensuing December 2020 Special Senatorial Election in Nimba County.
The Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) is a political body that comprises of four political parties in Liberia whose leadership have agreed to collaborate in their bid to democratically unseat the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) led government which came to power in January 2018 following an election political pundits described as a test case of Liberia’s future as the country experienced its first democratic transition in more than 70 years.
Political parties making up the CPP include: former ruling Unity Party (UP), Liberty Party (LP), All Liberian Party (ALP) and the Alternative National Congress (ANC).
Officials of the CPP, supporters of Madam Weh and well-wishers took to the street of Ganta on Monday, September 28, 2020 to show support to Madam Weh’s senatorial bid as well as witness her certification as required under the CPP’s framework.
ALP’s Benoni W. Urey and Chairman Emeritus of the CPP, on behalf of CPP’s current Chairman, Alexander Benedict Cummings and the entire CPP presented a Certificate of Endorsement to Madam Edith Gongloe-Weh as a symbol of the institution’s satisfaction and willingness to exclusively support Madam Weh in the December 2020 Special Senatorial Election in Nimba County.
Mr. Urey while presenting the certificate to Mrs. Weh challenged partisans of CPP to elect Madam Weh as the first female Senator of Nimba in recent history.
He as well challenged Madam Gongloe-Weh to take see her certification as a “call to duty” and not to see it as a reason to sit idle, as according to him, complacency in any process kills dreams.
For her part, Grand Bassa County Senator Nyonblee Kangar Lawrence and Standard Bearer of Liberty Party said it was now time for women of Nimba County to join the process to elect “their kind”, adding their failure to do so now would take them (women of Nimba) more than 20 years before another woman surfaces in the political space of the county, which she stated has always been male dominance in its political leadership structure.
Accepting the Certificate of Endorsement, Madam Gongloe-Weh thanked the CPP for her preferment and called on all partisans and sympathizers of the CPP to translate their anger and frustration over poor leadership into action by massively voting for her in the ensuing December polls.
The Liberty Party strongwoman who has contested in the county’s senatorial election twice and lost challenged her supporters and those who have interest in women leadership to seize the moment now and vote for her comes December 8.
“Today was a huge success! Everything is on the line in this election and we must vote as if our lives depended on it! This is a call to action to fight for our democracy and the future of Nimba”, Madam Gongloe-Weh challenged supporters at the certification program.
According to her, with the support of all her supporters and well-wishers, her election as the next Senator of Nimba county is sure as she is ready now, more than ever before.
“I am ready more than ever, but I need your help! Only together we can bring the change that Nimba and Liberia do desperately deserves”, she concluded.
Edith Weh’s endorsement brings to five, the number of female candidates the CPP is featuring in the upcoming Special Senatorial Election.
This is part of the institution’s strive in hitting the 30% Female representation at the National Legislature.
Meanwhile, based on what he termed as the CPP’s decision to prefer Madam Edith Gongloe-Weh over him, Mr. Taa Wongbe an executive of ANC and one of the closest allies to Mr. Alexander B. Cummings has with immediate effect resigned from the party to contest the Senatorial seat of Nimba as an independent candidate in the December polls.
Mr. Wongbe’s resignation from the ANC came shortly following a controversial primary conducted by the CPP in which he lost to Liberty Party’s Edith Gongloe-Weh.
He cited fraud and irregularities as vices employed by some actors within the CPP that led to his lost.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Ganta on Sunday, Taa accused the CPP of conducting “stage” managed primary that was marred by fraud and irregularities all for the purpose of imposing the wrong candidate on citizens of Nimba.
“I refused to compromise the interest of the young people of Nimba”, Mr. Wongbe stated.
The ANC former executive told his supporters who gathered to welcome him over the weekend that he has been certificated by the National Elections Commission to run in the upcoming election as Independent candidate.
He assured his supporters of absolute victory comes December Special Senatorial election.
