Monrovia – As 2017 election draws closer, political crossover is becoming a norm, and the latest of such is Rev. Hananiah Zoe’s move to the National Patriotic Party (NPP) from the Liberia Educational and Development Party (LEDP).
Zoe, addressing residents of Peace Island in Congo Town, says that he was the man set ready for the Presidency.
Zoe is confident of becoming the political leader of the National Patriotic Party, and stressed that he had all it takes for NPP to regain the presidency.
Zoe is a native of Nimba County and with NPP as the party the clergyman believes that it is a good medium through which he will assume state power in 2017, adding that the NPP knew the solution to the many problems facing Liberia.
Rev. Zoe assured the residents of the party’s commitment to handle the situation if given the power at the upcoming polls.
NPP didn’t put forth a presidential candidate in the last general presidential election in 2011 with the coming of Rev. Zoe the party might have a face on the presidential ballot.
However, Rev. Zoe will have to compete in a primary for the NPP standard bearer position with former Liberian Ambassador to the UN Nathaniel Barnes and Senator Jewel Howard Taylor.
Confident Rev. Zoe told the residents that 2017 will be a year of change that will positively impact the living conditions of the people of Liberia, including children whose parents cannot afford to enroll them in school.
“During the NPP regime, prices of rice and other basic commodities were not escalated like it is today. This is why we have come again to say ‘Give us the opportunity to change things for the betterment of the country’.
‘When I look at Liberian children today, I feel bad because their situation is not improving,” Rev, Zoe said.
He continued: “God will use the NPP to take the country to another level, where the government will provide more opportunities for the young people, because we have not been doing anything to improve the lives of ordinary Liberians for the past 11 years.
Rather, it is our neighboring countries that are making progress on all fronts.”
Zoe attributed the country’s inactive development programs to the bad road networks, which he said continued to get worse every year.
In 1997 Charles Taylor’s warring faction, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia reorganized itself into a civilian political party known as the National Patriotic Party (NPP). Charles Taylor and the NPP won the 19 July 1997 election with a substantial majority.
While international observers deemed the polls administratively free and transparent, they noted that it had taken place in an atmosphere of intimidation because most voters believed that Taylor would resume the war if defeated.
The party also won 49 of 64 seats in the House of Representatives and 21 of 26 in the Senate. Due to domestic and international pressure as a result of the Second Liberian Civil War, Taylor stepped down as president in August 2003
The party later contested the 2005 general election.
The party’s presidential candidate was Roland Massaquoi, who earned 4.1% of the vote. The NPP also won four seats in the House of Representatives and another four in the Senate.