MONROVIA — The chairman of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), Mulbah Morlu, has described Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor as a “reliable deputy” who has all the odds in her favor to be retained as running mate to President George Weah in 2023.
Howard-Taylor, whose National Patriotic Party (NPP) is part of a three-party merger making up the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), has endured a torrid spell with President Weah since their ascendency in 2017 giving rise to speculations that the former World Footballer of the Year was considering another option as his running mate ahead of 2023.
But Morlu said though he doesn’t have the authority to singlehandedly select Howard-Taylor as running mate to President but added that the indicators were glaring that she would be retained as running mate in 2023.
“By the virtue of what I think and know. I feel honored by referring to Howard-Taylor as the undisputed running mate to President George Weah to President Weah” he told a huge gathering of NPP partisans in Monrovia.
According to Morlu, Howard-Taylor’s name on the presidential ballot would increase the likelihood of President Weah’s reelection in 2023. “As a daughter of Bong, the third populated county in Liberia and someone who twice won as senator before becoming vice president, Howard-Taylor is highly influential with the Kpelle people,” he said.
“With her experience coupled with the work the CDC has done since its ascendency to power I can predict an easy re-election for the CDC in 2023.”
Morlu, who started his politics in 1996, described the former ruling NPP as a “home” and said his CDC has been very grateful for forming a merger with the NPP.
The NPP meeting which brought in attendance chair persons of Liberia’s 15 counties, was aimed at finding a resolution in a bid to replace Maryland County Senator James Biney, whose leadership as chairman of the party has elapsed.
FrontPageAfrica, meanwhile, gathered that some officials of the party have written a communication to the National Elections Commission (NEC) of the expiration of Biney’s leadership.
It’s being alleged that the NEC saw the legitimacy in the complaint of NPP stalwarts and mandated the party to form an acting chairman that will lead the party to convention.
The acting chairmanship is being headed by long-serving partisan of NPP, Nyudueh Morkonmana.
Morkonmana, former Speaker of the House of Representatives during the regime of ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor, announced that all was set for the party to go for its convention and assured partisans of a transparent new leadership.
“We are here to inform you that we have the mandate from NEC to conduct our convention and hope to go or host a successful convention and that the process will be transparent as we usher in our new leadership,” he said.
For her part, the standard bearer Howard-Taylor said it’s time for those seeking to fuel conflict in the party to leave.
“This is the time we all rally around the party and give NPP a new brand, many people do not want to see good things happening in the NPP, but we need to prove them wrong and tell those in Maryland, Grand Kru, Sinoe and other counties want to know how the new NPP will be.”
She called partisans of the NPP to work together and trash out their differences, calling for the need to ensure that the interim leadership succeeds as a matter of must.
“The NPP has suffered too long and needs to dust itself off. All of us need to trash out our differences to do it,” she said. The NPP can’t die because the sweat and blood of its fore bearers still alive.
Howard-Taylor told partisans that the Morkonmana’s leadership will succeed because of the willingness of all partisans is assured.