MONROVIA – The Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) has elected Ms. Pauletta Wie and Abu Kamara to represent the party in the pending Montserrado County by-elections. The two candidates were elected by delegates on Friday during the primaries held in New Kru Town, a stronghold of the ruling establishment.
Mr. Abu Kamara is opting to replace fallen lawmaker Adolph Lawrence of District 15. Rep. Lawrence who died in a tragic car accident on the Robertsfield Highway had served for just a year in the second term at the House of Representatives.
Abu won on white ballot after his fierce contender withdrew from the race at the eleventh hours of the primaries. As a CDC candidate, he now has a challenge to face Miss Telia Urey who has also been brought forth by the four collaborating opposition political parties including the former ruling Unity Party, Liberty Party, the Alternative National Congress and the All Liberian Party, which is headed by her father, Benoni Urey.
In 2017, Mr. Kamara came to contesting against Adolph Lawrence but was denied by the Supreme Court for failing to comply with the Code of Conduct for public officials.
The Supreme Court ruled that he was an official of government and as per the Code of Conduct, appointed officials of government wanting to contest a national elections must resign two years ahead of the elections.
Abu worked as deputy minister at the Ministry of Transport during former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s regime.
Miss Paulita Wie represents the party in the senatorial race after defeating four other candidates in the primaries.
Others who contested the primaries against her are Josephine Davies, the current Inspector General at the Ministry of Commerce, Sabah Jomah, Phil Dixon, Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Labor and Nancy Yollah, a market woman from the Liberian Marketing Association who proved to be a major contender to Wie as she went neck-to-neck during the counting of results.
Wie obtained a total vote of 267, with Yollah the market woman coming next with the total amount of 219 votes, while Josephine Davies the Commerce Inspector obtained 7, Sabah Jomah a little known CDCian obtained 92 votes of the total votes. Out of the expected 780 delegates, 685 delegates voted in the process. There were 100 invalid votes.
Wie will face the likes of Abraham Darius Dillon who has the backing of four opposition political parties for the Montserrado County senatorial seat. The seat became vacant following the sudden death of former Senator Geraldine Doe Sheriff who died in Accra, Ghana early this year.
Phil Dixon attempted a last-minute withdrawal which was rejected. FrontPageAfrica gathered that he his decision to contest the senatorial seat was against the decision of the party’s standard bearer and majority of the party who believed the seat was once occupied a female, therefore, only females should contest.
Under the watchful eyes of President George Weah, the New Kru Town primaries appears to be arguably be one of the most transparent primaries the CDC had held in its political history. As if he wanted to see everything, President Weah sat in his seat from afternoon hours to mid-night observing the process every step of the way without even taking a water break of attending to nature.
Prior to the start of the process, President Weah encouraged partisans to unite and reclaim the vacant seat in the Senate because, according to him, the seat is a CDC seat. He commended the CDC for adhering to the rudiments of democracy. He threw jabs at the ALP, UP, ANC and LP who chose candidates by consensus.
“What we are doing here today is the beauty of democracy, we are not like the others who elected their candidates outside of primaries,” the President stated.