Africa-Press – Liberia. The Board of Commissioners of the National Elections Commission will on Tuesday render final judgment on the complaint filed by the Liberty Party and the Alternative National Congress regarding the abrupt exit of the Unity Party and the All Liberian Party from the Collaborating Political Parties and the eligibility of the two parties to field a candidate in the ensuing Lofa County senatorial by-election.
The CPP is/was made of four collaborating opposition political parties including the Alternative National Congress (ANC), the Liberty Party (LP), the All Liberian Party (ALP), and the Unity Party.
The CPP was formed by the four opposition political parties with the goal of solidifying their force to unseat President George M. Weah in the 2023 election.
However, the ALP and the UP have announced their exit from the collaboration.
Both the LP and the ANC which appear to be the remaining fragments of the CPP are of the belief that their counterparts did not exit the agreement legally.
After arguments from lawyers representing the parties, Madam Davidetta Brown-Lasannah, Chairperson of the Commission, announced that the Commission was reserving ruling for Tuesday, April 6, 2022 T 3:00 pm.
“The NEC withholds ruling on this matter and will render its final ruling on Tuesday, April 6, 2022, at 3:00 PM,” she said.
The Musa Bility-fraction of the LP, which continues to enjoy legal backing from the NEC, and the ANC, officially complained the UP and ALP to the commission in a letter dated March 21, 2022.
The letter was issued under the signatures of Chairman Bility and Martin Kollah Chairman and Secretary-General of the LP, and Daniel Naatehn and Aloysius Toe, Chairman and Secretary-General of the ANC, respectively.
They complained that though the LP and the ANC have learned through the media and several online interviews of officers of the UP and the ALP, both parties have failed to officially notify the body through its National Advisory Council or the National Executive Committee of the CPP.
“There have been no official communications from the ALP or UP to either the CPP National Advisory Council or National Executive Committee regarding the said withdrawal. We also learned that both parties have requested the commission to bar the use of their name and logo from the CPP logo,” the communication stated.
The feud and animosity among executives and members of the shattered Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) continue to intensify on a regular basis as evidenced by the latest request made by the Alternative National Congress (ANC) of Mr. Alexander Benedict Cummings and the Musa Hassan Bility’s fraction of the Liberty Party (LP) to the National Elections Commission (NEC) for the rejection of the former ruling Unity Party (UP) and the All Liberian Party (ALP) from contesting in the 2023 general and presidential elections.
In December last year, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ALP of the businessman turned politician Benoni Urey, announced that it was pulling out of the CPP on allegation of the altering of the framework document which brought the four parties together
Nearly two months later, the UP, through its Standard Bearer, Joseph Nyuma Boakai, on Wednesday, February 16, 2022, announced its withdrawal from the collaboration after failed efforts to resolve the internal impasse within the party.
The impasse, led to the filing of lawsuit against Mr. Cummings and few of his party’s executives by the ALP.
Recently, the Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence fraction of the Liberty Party also announced its withdrawal from the CPP, accusing the ANC of allegedly altering the framework document in a resolution issued.
“The CPP is now further beset with a seemingly intractable conflict growing out of the mishandling of the CPP Framework Document by the ANC during its eight (8) months of leadership as is being demonstrated by multiple acrimonies involving the said ANC and other constituent Political Parties of the CPP, which have resulted to litigations contrary to the spirit and determination of the collaboration. As a result of the aforementioned, it has now become glaring that the purposes that underpinned the establishment of the Collaborating Political Parties, as expressed in the Framework Document, can no longer be realized under the circumstances herein stated”.
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