Cole Against Moye – Launches Anti-Moye Crusade for 2020

By Patrick Tokpah, in Bong County

Ahead of the 2020 midterm senatorial election, Bong County District #3 Representative Josiah Marvin Cole says Liberia’s Deputy House Speaker Prince Kermue Moye who is also Bong County District #2 representative, is not a ‘Senatorial material’.

The Bong County lawmaker of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) said Deputy Speaker Moye’s election to the Senate will be dangerous and detrimental to the Development of Bong County.

The District #3 Representative Cole made the disclosure recently in Jorquelleh District while addressing cross section of residents in Gbarnga, Bong County.

But it appears that Representative Cole’s rebuff of Deputy Speaker Moye’s bid for the Senate is a payback to Moye for criticism he meted against Rep. Cole in 2018 for attempting to contest the Bong County Senatorial Seat.

In 2018, Rep. Cole announced his bid to fill vacancy left by the election of Senator Jewel Howard Taylor following her election to the office of the Vice President of Liberia to the displeasure of Rep. Moye.

As though the table has swung around, it is Cole who this time is criticizing Representative Prince Moye, who is at the edge of completing a countywide consultation aimed at opposing incumbent Senator Henry Willie Yallah in 2020 election.

Rep. Moye is serving his second-term at the House of Representatives, is bracing up for the senate. “Moye as ambitious politician who is not sensitive to the country’s current economic crisis”, said Rep. Cole.

Representative Cole added that any attempt by Bongese to elect Representative Prince Moye at the Senate will be another huge burden on the CDC government to conduct by-election to fill the vacancy his election to the senate will create at the House of Representatives.

Cole warned against electing Moye to the Senate where his father, Senator Henique Tokpa, is already seated as Senator, adding that Deputy Speaker Moye’s ambition has divided the caucus and therefore implore the people of Bong County not to elect Moye as Senator while his father is Senator occupying one of the Seats for Bong in the Upper House.

Representative Cole called on citizens in the County to unite against Moye’s ambition because it doesn’t augur well for Bong County. The District #3 representative said if the Unity Party (UP) Representative Moye is elected senator in 2020, the government of Liberia will be constrained to spend over two million United States Dollars to conduct elections for a Representative for his district.

Recently, Deputy Speaker Moye told journalists in the County about his ambition to contest the senatorial seat in Bong County contrary to his comments in 2018, that he will not want to contest for the senate.

However, Deputy Speaker Moye summersaulted on his words, saying this time around that his decision to contest is a necessary. “There is necessary by-election and unnecessary by-election. 2018 when Marvin Cole was contesting, it was unnecessary but mine is necessary,” Deputy Speaker Moye justified.

His deviation from his previous position considering contesting the senate unnecessary has led to some citizens of Bong County to describe him as a politician who is self-centered and makes public statements based on his personal interest rather than national interest.