Monrovia – In 2005, newcomer to Liberian politics, former soccer legend George M. Weah pulled numbers and even blocked traffic everywhere he appeared.
“We expect a historic assembling where hundreds of thousands of CDC partisans will gather to petition Ambassador Weah who will declare that he is standing in the race for President and he is going to be Liberia’s next commander in chief to clean the mess Madam Sirleaf and Boakai have created”. -Mulbah Morlu, Vice Chairman for Operations and Mobilization, Congress for Democratic Change
Enthusiastic youths were eager to get a glimpse of Weah whom they have seen on international and local television playing the most popular sports- football.
For many Liberians it was not about experience and education but the popularity of Weah contributed to the mammoth crowd that followed him during the political campaign.
Although Weah was not successful in 2005 but again in 2011, he still commanded large followers even when he contested as Vice Presidential running mate to former United Nations Ambassador, Cllr. Winston Tubman where the CDC again failed to win the presidential election.
Weah still tested his popularity when he contested the 2014 special senatorial election for the most populous county- Montserrado and easily won with wide margin over his opponents.
With preparations for the 2017 general and presidential elections now in full swing, there are speculations that might settle for a second spot to another candidate but key CDC officials have persistently denied such rumors saying Weah will contest for the presidency.
Two million march
To add to the news that Weah will be contesting as a presidential candidate, the CDC says it will today petition Weah to contest.
Mulbah Morlu, the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) vice President for operation says, the Party planned Petitioning Program of its political leader on Thursday April 28, 2016 to contest the Presidency in 2017 will be a historical event.
Morlu in a telephone interview with FrontPageAfrica said, hundreds of thousands of Liberians, including partisans, and well-wishers are expected to gather at the Party headquarters to show their support to their political leader for the upcoming 2017 presidential and general elections.
Morlu said: “We expect a historic assembling where hundreds of thousands of CDC partisans will gather to petition Ambassador Weah who will declare that he is standing in the race for Presidency and he is going to be Liberia’s next commander in chief to clean the mess Madam Sirleaf and Boakai have created.”
According to Morlu the CDC has had a meeting with the Ministry of Justice and it has been agreed that the rally will be guided by officers of the National Police to provide maximum security for supporters and partisans of the CDC.
He said, delegates from the fifteen counties are in Monrovia where the program is expected to take place. He played down comments from critics that the CDC may not be able to pull the number of people they had pulled in the past.
“CDC has grown over 11 years of the UP regime; people have come to believe that the CDC is the way forward, the next alternative you may be aware that there was a declaration of membership of UP partisans to the CDC on Tuesday this shows that CDC is the next alternative,” he said.
The Liberia National Police recently confirmed that it has given Liberia’s main opposition political party, the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) the ‘Go ahead’ with its planned program to petition its political leader, Senator George Weah to contest the 2017 general and presidential elections.
CDC, Police discuss
According to a release from the Police, a discussion between the two institutions, (The Police and CDC Officials) the party has agreed that its partisans will respect the rule of law.
According to the release, the issue of traffic control was also highlighted during the discussion, noting that the Liberia National Police would like to state that it welcomes the CDC initiative by meeting with the Police and encourage other political parties to engage the Police whenever they wish, the release concluded.
For its part, the party’s executives at a well-attended press conference called on all partisans of the CDC to wear ‘Blue T-Shirts’ for the program, stressing, that the entire city of Monrovia will be locked.
Henry Karmo (0886522495) [email protected]