NPP Raises Red Flag against One Sided Decisions in CDC -Names its candidate in Nimba County Bye election

The former ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP), said as a constituent member of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), it has observed with dismay over the period the constant habit of the Congress for Democratic Change in effecting decisions and policies that impact the Coalition with no regard to the other two constituent members, the Liberia People Democratic Party (LPDP), and the National Patriotic Party (NPP).

When the Coalition of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), the Liberia People Democratic Party (LPDP) and the National Patriotic Party (NPP) combined their respective forces through an agreement to form a Coalition to participate in the 2017 Presidential and Legislative election, we did so under the stewardship of a Governing Council, a team of highly qualified and experience people.

A release signed by the Chairman of NPP Mr. James Biney said that the Governing Council effectively guided and steered the affairs of the Coalition for Democratic Change to a milestone victory but once victory was achieved, the Congress for Democratic Change rendered the Governing Council functionally immaterial by its [Congress] action. “The Congress has since assumed a unilateral role in determining the government’s architecture. The other two parties play no major role in decisions that affect the governance of the country. This is certainly not the spirit with which the Coalition was formed”, Chairman Biney said.

“In view of what is unfolding, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the National Patriotic Party convened on October 2, 2021 and endorsed the candidature of Mr. Sam Brown who is contesting in the by-election in District (1) Nimba County. Partisan Brown is a National Patriotic Party partisan. He contested the Representative election in the same District in 2017 achieving the second place”, he said.

Chairman Biney who is also a Senator from Maryland County said the NPP considers it unfortunate that the Congress for Democratic Change selected to unilaterally decide that the Coalition for Democratic Change is not fielding a candidate in the ensuing by-election. He said It can be recalled that the Congress for Democratic Change made a similar unilateral decision to field a set of incumbent Senators in the 2020 mid-term election. “The advice of the other two constituent parties in the Coalition, the NPP and LPDP, that the Coalition derives its candidates through democratic primaries was resisted by the Congress for Democratic Change. The Congress imposed the set of Senatorial candidates on the Coalition and the result in the 2020 mid-term election produced disastrous political consequences for the Coalition”, he said.

The release concluded that henceforth, considering the importance the NPP attaches to the by-election, the NPP directs its Nimba County political machinery to get totally involved in the support of partisan Sam Brown. “We also call on all our partisans and supporters in the district and the entire Nimba County to rally their support behind Partisan Brown”, the release concluded.