KAKATA—Margibi County Unity Party (UP) officials from across the five electoral districts, including district officials, former legislative candidates, women and youth Congresses and other stakeholders, have reaffirmed their support through a resolution for the recent nominated local government officials of Margibi County by President Joseph Nyuma BoaKai and urged the Liberian Senate to conduct their confirmation hearings.
By Selma Lomax, [email protected]
Pres. Boakai recently nominated the Margibi County Development Officer, Administrative Officer, Finance Officer, City Mayors, Districts and Townships Commissioners and submitted their names to the Liberian Senate for subsequent confirmations.
Since then, the nominees’ confirmations have been delayed due to reported lobbying by some supporters of Unity Party (UP) with Pro-Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence and the county two Senators Emmanuel Nuquay and Nathanial McGill to delay their nomination hearings in a bid to buy time to undo the nominations.
The delay has now triggered the more than 100 Margibi County Unity Party officials to sign a resolution in which they argued that President Joseph N. Boakai nominated Madam Victoria W. Duncan, a former Representative candidate on the Movement for One Liberia (MoL), representing the Alliance Political Party as Superintendent of Margibi County and was subsequently confirmed by the Liberian Senate without protest from Unity Party Partisans, despite the United Party Chair, Madam Cecelia Doe’s interest for the same position.
They said that the President nominated several members of the Unity Party based on the recommendations of the Unity Party leadership in the County in consultations with former candidates who contested on the party’s ticket in the October 2023 election, stating that those nominated are yet to be confirmed by the Liberian Senate, thus making the Superintendent as the only local government official duly inducted into office while all other offices remain vacant.
“Some individuals in the county professing to be members of the Alliance Political Party in collaboration with other unappointed individuals have continued to resist these nominations, thereby making the Senate to use the protest as the basis for placing a hold on the confirmation of those already nominated; those protesting (Alliance Political Party and some unappointed individuals) are insisting that the President of the Republic include the names of some of their members on the current list of appointed officials before the confirmation hearing can be conducted by the Senate”, they stated.
The Margibi’s UP officials expressed the belief that there are still some local government positions in Margibi to which the Pres. Boakai has not made any nominations, adding that those protesting could be considered for those local government positions not yet occupied.
The UP officials: “If those nominated are not confirmed by the Liberian Senate; the efforts being exerted will make the Unity Party ill-relevant in the body politics of the County since it doesn’t have representation on the Margibi Legislative Caucus and the local government leadership of the County and if those nominated are not confirmed”.
At the same time, the Margibi UP officials including the five districts officials, former candidates, the leadership of the Women and Youth Congresses, and other stakeholders are calling on President Joseph Nyuma Boakai to remain firm on retaining those nominated and ensure that the Liberian Senate confirms the nominees.