Monrovia – Representative Edwin Melvin Snowe is apparently back to his independent roots. FrontPageAfrica has been reliably informed the influential Bomi County lawmaker and current chair of the ECOWAS Parliamentary Committee on Political Affairs, Peace, Security and African Peer Review Mechanism has quit the former ruling Unity Party, dealing a major blow to the party’s quest to retain state power.
Rep. Snowe, has been in the House of Representative since January 2006, first as representative from District No. 6, Montserrado County and later, running as a representative from Bomi County where he has been since his victory in the 2017 presidential elections.
Rep. Snowe, when contacted Tuesday, declined to confirm or deny the report but said he will provide clarity by end of business day Wednesday.
An aide in the representative’s office however told FrontPageAfrica late Tuesday evening that the former Speaker of the House of Representatives was very close to announcing his departure from the party.
The source said both the party and the lawmaker had reached a breaking point of no return because after considering the perspectives he had envisioned for his political future, he has come to the decision that his aspirations no longer align with the Party’s ideologies.
Speculations have been in the air for months now that the lawmaker was pondering a run for the Senate for Bomi County. Although he has previously dismissed the reports, sources say the former ruling party’s decision to go into a different direction may have been pivotal to the lawmaker’s decision.
It is also unclear whether the lawmaker would remain an independent, remain in one of the other parties in the opposition Coalition of Political Parties alliance or switch to the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change.
Rep. Snowe, in the October 11, 2005 elections ran as an independent candidate in the 5th district of Montserrado County and was elected to the House of Representatives. Subsequently he was elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
He survived a controversial attempt to remove him over a bribery allegations however, a few days later the Supreme Court ordered him to be reinstated, pending an appeal. According to Snowe, the regular setting of the house was unconstitutional and was illegal; he alleged that some votes against him were obtained through bribery and that the matter was not legitimate because it did not occur in a city, as required by the constitution. On January 29, 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Snowe’s favor, describing his removal as unconstitutional.
The lawmaker was reinstated as Speaker on Thursday, February 15, 2007 on grounds that he would not go to the township of Virginia for Legislative matters in keeping with article 40 of the Liberian Constitution which states: Neither House shall adjourn for more than five days without the consent of the other and both Houses shall always sit in the same city.
In March 2020, Snowe was appointed to chair the ECOWAS Parliamentary Committee on Political Affairs, Peace, Security and African Peer Review Mechanism by the speaker of ECOWAS Parliament Sidie Mohammed Tunis of Sierra Leone.
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