The Representative-elect of Montserrado County’s district #5, Prescilla Abram Cooper, has entered the race for the Speaker position at the House of Representatives to replace defeated Pleebo Sodoken district’s lawmaker, Dr. Bhofal Chambers.
According to information, Cooper is contending against the incumbent Deputy Speaker of the House, Cllr. J. Fonati Kofa.
Representative-elect Cooper won the district #5 seat on the ticket of the Unity Party (UP), replacing Thomas P. Fallah, who contested in Lofa County.
According to information, the female lawmaker has vowed to replace Dr. Chambers, in order to return sanity to the plenary of the House of Representatives, and as well bring her years of leadership and political experience to the House.
Prescilla Abram Cooper, who is said to have budgeted a whopping US$1.5 million for lobbying, is being heavily supported by the opposition bloc.
Even though she is being described as the underdog in the race, political pundits are considering her a force to reckon with, especially when her contender is from the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
According to pundits, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the 54th House of Representatives were both CDCians, and this gave President George M. Weah an easy ride in getting his job done at the first branch of government, even when it was not in the interest of the country and its citizenry.
They stated that individuals who desire to properly serve their people at the House would prefer a Speaker from the opposition bloc, in order to checkmate bills emanating from the Executive branch of government.
They say Representative Cooper, as an opposition lawmaker, stands a better chance to win the position, as her counterpart is a member of the previous leadership that many of their lawmakers described as a failed one.
Besides, they say, it will be irrational, again, for the President, Pro-Tempore and Speaker to hail from the southeast, as it was during the first term of President Weah.
Representative-elect Prescilla Abram Cooper comes with a wealth of experience from both the public and private sectors, serving at different levels of administrative and managerial positions in major corporate institutions and the National Legislature.
Politically, she has been an ardent adherent of the Liberty Party (LP) political platform, centered on the four R’s: reconciliation, reform, recovery and rebuilding. She is said to be of the unbending conviction that, although politics is sometimes defined in terms of who gets what, when, how and where, contemporary Liberian politics must present a human face.
This, to her, entails going beyond defining politics in the often narrow view of “what is her ultimate interest?” Owing to this view, she has continued to work along with her political party in projecting what is known as the utilitarian value of politics: the greater good for the greater number of people.
Individuals who have interacted with her argue that that she has no inclination of politics in the context of “what can one get out of it personally” and disregarding the overall interest of the political environment.
“If this statement is anything to go by, it means Representative Cooper is best suited for the Speakership at the 55th National Legislature,” political pundits maintained.