Former chairman, who quit in 2024 after a long rift with Weah, is asked to help rebuild the party for 2029
MONROVIA – A group calling itself the “Concerned Partisans, Grassroots Mobilizers, and Supporters” of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) on Saturday sent a formal petition to former National Chairman Mulbah K. Morlu, Jr. It asks him to “reconsider your departure” and come back to the party he left more than two years ago.
By Rodney D. Sieh
The petition is dated November 14, 2026 and carries the theme “Experienced, Trusted, Vibrant, Capable, and No-Nonsense Leadership Ahead of the 2029 Elections.” It says its backers come from all 15 counties. No individual signs it.
“We want you back! Not tomorrow. Not someday. Now! Today!” the document says. It ends with the chant “Morlu Must Return!”
What the petitioners want
The petition makes five requests. Morlu should return to the CDC, reconnect with ordinary partisans, lead reconciliation between rival factions, help rebuild the party and work with others to restore its “electoral competitiveness.”
It does not say outright that he should get his old job back. But FrontPageAfrica reported last week that his supporters, organized across Bong, Margibi, Grand Bassa and Montserrado counties, want him back in the party’s top post. As that report noted, a supporters’ petition cannot hand anyone the chairmanship; any change has to go through the CDC’s constitutional and electoral procedures.
The petitioners point to the 2023 result to argue that the party can still win. In the presidential runoff, Joseph Nyuma Boakai of the Unity Party received 814,481 votes and George Manneh Weah received 793,914, a margin of 20,567. The CDC also won 25 of the 73 House seats, the largest bloc held by any single party.
The document lists Morlu’s posts since 2005. They include chairman of the CDC-aligned Progressive Action for Change, vice chairman for operations from 2012 to 2018, deputy campaign manager in 2017 and national chairman from 2018 to 2024. It credits him with leading the 2012 internal campaign that removed then-Standard Bearer Cllr. Winston Tubman and restored Weah as standard bearer. It also says that in 2013 he led 11 members of the Executive Committee in defending Weah’s Senate candidacy, at a time when Robert Sirleaf, son of then-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was being promoted as an alternative.
Without naming anyone, the petition says it is not trying to “reopen old wounds, assign blame, or revisit past disagreements.”
Those old wounds
Those disagreements were mostly with Weah himself.
Morlu took over the party when Weah became president in 2018, and even that was disputed. Then-chairman Nathaniel McGill said that after consulting party leaders he would step aside and let Morlu, the vice chair for operations, act as chair until the convention. But a statement signed by then-Secretary General Janga A. Kowo denied that the national chairman had been replaced. Kowo now leads the party.
Morlu went on to win the chairmanship on a white ballot at the CDC’s 7th national convention, and he also chaired the wider Coalition for Democratic Change until he resigned.
The relationship with Weah broke down in December 2019, when an audio recording leaked in which Morlu made disparaging remarks about the president’s personal life. Morlu told this newspaper the remarks were “mere liquor talk,” said out of frustration and anger during the party’s internal crisis. Weah played it down in public: “everyone can get angry and talk,” he said. He saved his anger for whoever made the recording. By then Morlu had been publicly pressing the government to reshuffle the cabinet and dismiss officials who were not performing.
The two sides announced a reconciliation, but it did not last. As the 2023 elections approached, Morlu spoke less and less, mostly through written statements, and he was barely seen or heard during the campaign.
After the defeat, Morlu tried to take charge of the rebuilding. He announced a “CDC Comeback Retreat” to plan the road to 2029. Weah stopped it. He suspended all of Morlu’s plans for a retreat in Grand Bassa County, saying he had not been informed.
Morlu resigned as chairman on February 27, 2024. He blamed the shrinking room for him to do the job effectively and wrote: “I hold no resentment towards anyone for these difficulties, and I do not desire conflict.” FrontPageAfrica learned at the time that Weah had been marginalizing him since the leaked audio. In the letter, Morlu said his disagreements with Weah were “driven solely by my principles and love for the party.”
He promised to remain a lifelong member, but within months he had gone. He left the party and gave up his membership, saying he had been chosen as chairman and lead advocate of Solidarity and Trust for a New Day (STAND).
After that, he attacked Weah openly. In mid-2024 he accused the former president of failing to prosecute Sirleaf-era officials over alleged looting, which he called a criminal conspiracy, and he described it as the “biggest economic crime conspiracy against Liberia”. In August 2025, when Senator Saah Joseph quit the CDC, he claimed party insiders had targeted Morlu and that Morlu had been drugged and beaten. Morlu flatly denied it.
From party boss to street leader
As head of STAND, Morlu has become one of the loudest critics of the Boakai government. He has accused it of police brutality, presiding over a worsening economy, widespread corruption and “political witch hunts” against opposition figures. After the December 17, 2025 “Lead or Leave” protest, police charged Morlu and his deputy, Rev. Festus R. B. Logan, and sent the case to court. The Independent National Commission on Human Rights said a follow-up demonstration on July 17, 2026 drew more than 1,500 people and was largely peaceful.
The movement has also caused friction in the opposition. The Liberian People’s Party distanced itself, accusing STAND of political opportunism and of links to the CDC.
Where the CDC stands now
Kowo has led the party since Morlu left, first as acting chairman. In May, the party said it would begin preparing for an extraordinary national convention to reposition itself. Meanwhile, allies have already started mobilizing for a Weah comeback in 2029.
As of November 8, Morlu had not confirmed any response to the campaign. The CDC leadership has not said in public whether it would welcome him back.
The petitioners say they are ready. “Come back and help rebuild the house you helped construct,” the petition says.
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