The Liberian People’s Party (LPP), headed by Cllr. Tiawan Saye Gongloe, has made a critical decision to support one of the two candidates announced by the National Elections Commission (NEC) for the run-off election slated for November 14, 2023, choosing the Unity Party (UP) of Ambassador Joseph N. Boakai over President George M. Weah and his Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
Cllr. Gongloe finished sixth place in the October 10 polls, accumulating majority of his votes from Nimba County, where he hails from. He has become the first candidate with more than 1% of the votes to make take a definite stance in the run-off, providing substantive reasons for supporting the only opposition political party that made it to the run-off.
In a press statement issued Wednesday, October 25, 2023, Cllr. Gongloe said, “From the broad consultations that we have conducted among our partisans and supporters at home and abroad as well as our conclusion that the party (CDC) in power placed Liberia in a virtual intensive care unit, we hereby declare that our party will support the only opposition, Unity Party (UP), that was chosen by the Liberian people to compete with the ruling party, (CDC).”
He called on all LPP partisans to go out to campaign and vote for the Unity Party and to ensure that Ambassador Boakai wins the second round of the 2023 presidential election, emphasizing that “government is a place to serve, not to steal”.
However, he underscored that the LPP was supporting the UP based on the expectation that, in the first one hundred days of its administration, the party will take measurable steps to improve the rule of law, through strengthening law enforcement and the independence of the judiciary; publish the asset declarations of all officials of government along with their salaries and benefits; increase the salaries of civil servants, including police officers, nurses, military and paramilitary, teachers, janitors, etc.; begin quarterly lifestyle audits of officials of government in the Executive Branch; take steps towards the investigation of all sanctioned officials in government with the assistance of the US government; and take steps towards the establishment of a war and economic crimes court.
Also, he said the UP should be able to increase the budget percentage to begin mechanized agriculture and increase percentage for education, and health to be at least 15 percent each of the 2024 budget and to put public works stations in the fifteen counties in order to improve the freedom of movement during the rainy season.
According to him, they are therefore placing the UP on notice—that upon its failure to meet these expectations they will be the first to condemn and criticize them.