
Monrovia – At a town hall meeting to promote equal participation in politics, two female candidates contesting the senatorial seat of Montserrado County presented their respective platforms to an audience of women from diverse backgrounds.
Report by Alline Dunbar, [email protected]
The meeting was held at the Monrovia City hall on Tuesday, June 25.
Macdella Cooper, a former Presidential candidate in the 2017 elections, said her decision to run for the Senate is to basically focus on women empowerment.
Madame Cooper stressed that if women do not have access to physical cash or the means to sustain themselves, “the word empowerment itself is useless”.
“Because if there is money in their pockets, they can become independent and they do not have to wait for a man to tell them what to do. We need money in our pockets,” she stressed.
On the other hand, Massa Massaquoi Kayon another female candidate also contesting the senatorial seat of Montserrado County focused her political platform on “respect, good relationship, and unity”.
Kayon said without these pillars there can be no economic empowerment for women.
“We do not need just to say the right things but to take actions towards them,” she said.
Meanwhile, former Senator and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Glorious Musu Scott cautioned the two female candidates about elections malpractices and other issues that follow the voting process.
“When you get through with all of the talking, what is most important is the election day. Do you have a system in place that will ensure that every vote that will be counted for you will go against your name?” She said.
She encouraged the candidates to organize their poll watchers and educate them about elections malpractice.
“Have you trained them, do they know what to look for you on election day when the votes are been calculated?”
The town hall meeting was sponsored and organized by UN Women, OXFAM, and Kvinna till Kvinna and ORWOCH.
It was intended to bring together all four female political candidates together to debate issues they intend improving after they are elected.
Paulita Wie, the candidate of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), and Telia Urey, who supported by the four collaborating parties, did not show up at the event.