The National Youth League of the Liberia People Democratic Party (LPDP), a constituent party of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) headed by former Speaker, J. Alex Tyler, has raised a series of issues it has viewed as counterproductive to the spirit and intent of the coalition that was forged among the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), National Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Liberia People Democratic Party (LPDP) in 2016.
In a release issued over the weekend, the LPDP Youth League, headed by Robbin L. George, said, “The spirit and intent of the coalition was that the three constituent political parties would have been involved with the governing process of the country. However, it may interest you to note that after achieving governance in 2017 the LPDP was made spectator in the governing of the state due to the tacit dissolution of the Governing Council. The party remained quiet for many years because of its maturity and non-confrontational posture.”
The release said, “In 2020 specifically, our political leader, former Speaker J. Alex Tyler, Sr., a member of the Governing Council, contested in the senatorial election in Bomi. Unfortunately and with utmost dismay the leadership of the coalition selected to support another candidate, Mr. Edwin Melvin Snowe, covertly and overtly, evidenced by Mr. Snowe’s own public admission that he was given solar lights, rice and other materials by the President of Liberia, His Excellency George Manneh Weah, the head of our coalition, to support his campaign.
“Despite the clear evidence for the support of Mr. Snowe by the leadership of the coalition, the LPDP chose to be silent on the issue.”
According to the release, “Even though the coalition’s agreement of 2016 expired in November 2022 and a new framework document is being discussed among the parties, the LPDP sees the same trend of activities in 2020 of supporting opposition candidates against its own repeating itself in 2023. One of the Senators in Bomi who informed the people of Bomi and the entire country that he would have contested for only one term of 9 years because of his age and will be retired at the end of his present term, suddenly decided to seek re-election because, according to him and a few senators he spoke to, ‘the President of Liberia and the head of the Coalition for Democratic Change asked me to seek re-election in Bomi’.
“The National Youth League of the LPDP is raising the issues at this time not because we believe the Senator who is seeking re-election has the capacity or popularity to win the election in Bomi, but because the LPDP sees the same plan and agenda being orchestrated against our political leader and the entire LPDP.”
The release added, “To support our claim, recently Senator Saah H. Joseph, who was elected on the ticket of the coalition with the full support of partisans of the LPDP in Montserrado and a high ranking member of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), attended a political program in Tubmanburg, Bomi County, and openly declared his support for the re-election bid of Senator Morris Saytumah, a staunch member of the opposition Unity Party.
“With such unfolding development, it is troubling and worrisome that, while we are discussing a new framework document that could possibly lead to the signing of a new coalition document, the action of some leaders of the coalition are clearly intended to undermine the on-going discussion of the framework document.
“Therefore, the National Youth League of the LPDP condemns in the strongest terms the attitude of Senator Saah H. Joseph and calls on the constituent parties of the coalition to desist from any action that will undermine the spirit and intent of the on-going discussing of the coalition’s document. Senator Joseph is hereby given seventy-two hours to retract his statements or we will resist the on-going discussion on the signing of a new framework document, including his re-election in Montserrado.”