Africa-Press – Liberia. President George Weah will be going into the October presidential elections with one key advantage – the likely retention of Jewel Howard-Taylor as his running mate for the second election year.
Historically, Bong County has always been the stronghold of Howard-Taylor’s National Patriotic Party (NPP), since the days of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Face of Bong
The standard bearer of the NPP has always been the “Face of Bong politics” since her first foray into politics in 2005 when she was elected senator. She would go on to win re-election in 2014, defeating independent candidate Henrique Tokpah.
Her selection as vice presidential candidate to George Weah in 2017 presidential elections paid off as the CDC won Bong County in both the first and second rounds for the first time in the party’s history.
The vice president remains in pole position to harvest the votes not just in Bong but the central region for the CDC, according to political pundits. She’s seen by a vast majority of Bongese (natives of Bong) as the only person from the central region that can challenge the opposition and win.
“The vice president has been tested and proven politically in the body politics of the country. In Bong, she has distinguished herself as a popular figure among locals and the CDC will benefit from her popularity,” says NPP chairman George Mulbah.
Mulbah believes the dynamics of 2023 and Howard-Taylor ‘s presence as a vice presidential candidate to President Weah makes the Sanoyea native the strongest political force from the central region.
But beyond the rhetoric, Howard-Taylor also faces several challenges in Bong she must surmount if her dream of repeating 2017 feat.
The CDC has lost three successive by-elections in Bong County since President Weah was elected in 2017 – 2018, 2020 and 2021 – seemingly because of internal fight within the CDC Bong Chapter.
Howard-Taylor also has the challenge of Unity Party stalwart Prince Moye, who was overwhelmingly elected senator of Bong County in 2020, defeating Henry Yallah of the CDC. Sen. Moye, a two-term representative before going on to win as senator, has made the UP more vibrant in Bong County, creating auxiliary groups and rallying key political actors of the county for UP’s standard bearer Joseph Boakai.
But analysts say the challenges notwithstanding, especially with Moye not on the ballot, Howard-Taylor remains the strongest native of Bong County going into the presidential election. Bong County has a history of always queuing behind whoever they think represents their best interest.
It is perhaps this sentiment that Howard-Taylor hoped to stoke in during the interactive session with a group of central region political leaders under the banner “Central Region for Weah-Taylor”.
“What the average person in Bong County and the central region needs is somebody who has been tested and proven on the national and global stage and in Howard-Taylor we have seen that character,” said Yanzeh Cooper, a resident of Nimba who was that part of the meeting in Gbarnga Tuesday.
Key allies
While the absence of the District Three and NPP lawmaker Marvin Cole at the launch of the voter registration awareness by the party Tuesday has been widely reported, the presence of some top politicians in Bong County suggests that the vice president and the CDC would not be short of foot soldiers and resources to deploy to help make the CDC win, Mulbah told FrontPageAfrica.
He believes these “movers and shakers” as well as Howard-Taylor’s history and political antecedents will see her get the bloc votes of the central region. He says the strategy is that the vice president is reaching out to all “movers and shakers of Bong, Nimba and Lofa”, and the structure of the party in these counties would deliver.
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