Gbarnga, Bong County – The acting chair of the Council of Patriots (COP), Menipakei Dumoe, has confirmed recent reports claiming that he is poised to contest the senate seat in Bong County this year.
Dumoe was reported late Saturday to be eyeing the position. Dumoe made this known via his Facebook page Wednesday.
In a short response to an inquiry by FrontPageAfrica immediately after the post Wednesday, Dumoe confirmed as “very true” the report about his intention.
He gave no further details.
Dumoe’s entry into the race is expected to give headache to the opposition Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) in selecting a candidate between Liberia’s Deputy Speaker Prince Moye of Unity Party and Jeremiah Sulunteh of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) for this year’s senatorial election in Bong County.
However, speculations are rife in Bong County that the CPP has already given the nod to the Unity Party to select a candidate in Bong based on a “mutual consent”. This decision is likely to favor Rep. Moye over Sulunteh, FPA understands.
Sulunteh, FrontPageAfrica has gathered, could go as an independent candidate if the decision favors Rep. Moye. There are also rumors that the former Liberian Ambassador could join the National Patriotic Party, where he’s expected to be endorsed by Vice President, Jewel Howard-Taylor.
The NPP, has won two successive elections (2005& 2014) in Bong before the 2017 presidential election. The party is said to be on the haunt for a candidate “that is popular with the people in the county”.
Dumoe is not strange to Bong politics. As a former staff to former Bong senator Jewel Howard-Taylor now vice president, Dumoe, a native of Gbarnga District, played a significant part in the election of the former first lady in 2014 election. And his involvement in the process didn’t go unnotice by Howard-Taylor when she appeared on Radio Gbarnga to give her victory speech. “I want to thank my entire campaign team, especially my campaign chairman Rep Edward Karfiah and a member of my staff Menipakei Dumoe was were there with me in the bushes,” Howard-Taylor said.
Dumoe was also a key member of the campaign team of Henrique Tokpa during the 2017 by-election to fill the vacancy created as the result of Howard-Taylor’s ascendency as vice president.
Through out during that election, Dumoe and Rep Moye spoke against sitting lawmaker Marvin Cole of Bong’s District #3 vying for political office. They said it was “a waste of the country’s resources”.
With Rep Moye, a sitting lawmaker of Bong’s District Two, eying the senate seat in 2020, eyes could be focused on the two opposition figures how they coin their campaign messages this time around.