Alternative Africa

Top Menu

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business
  • Environment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Reports
    • Africa-Observers
      • Read Reports
      • Submit a story
  • MORE
    • Health
    • News Now
    • World
    • Technology
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us

logo

Alternative Africa

  • Home
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business
  • Environment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Reports
    • Africa-Observers
      • Read Reports
      • Submit a story
  • MORE
    • Health
    • News Now
    • World
    • Technology
  • No change in horizon in Uganda as “lord Museveni” takes early election lead, rival alleges fraud

  • UK opens largest temporary mortuary as high covid deaths continue

  • Capitol Riot Fallout: Colleges Rescind Honorary Degrees Awarded To Trump

  • Coated tongue becoming more widespread as coronavirus symptom-Expert

  • Africa gets 1st vaccine doses from COVAX in March, mass vaccination in June-WHO

News Now
Home›News Now›Liberia Holds a Free Election. Make That ‘Free-for-All.’

Liberia Holds a Free Election. Make That ‘Free-for-All.’

By alternativeafrica
October 6, 2017
783
0
Share:

But any resemblance to American presidential elections ends there.

Liberian democracy means daily traffic jams caused by thousands of people marching through the streets chanting campaign slogans. “Our ma spoil it, our pa will fix it,” is the curious offering of some supporters of the ruling Unity Party. The “ma” in this case is President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, now feuding with her vice president, Joseph Boakai — he would be the “pa” — over sundry misdeeds.

Photo

HEIR NOT SO APPARENT Joseph Boakai, the Liberian vice president, is involved in a spat with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the president under whom he has served for 12 years. Credit Ahmed Jallanzo/European Pressphoto Agency

Liberian democracy means having a chance to leave rural villages and partake in the nightly parties.

“I am here to show that Oppong is qualified to be the next leader of Africa,” announced a cheerful Morris Dwah, referring to Mr. Weah, whom Liberians routinely call by his nom de soccer. Mr. Dwah said he had traveled for two days from Nimba to take part in the festivities.

This battle over which of 20 registered candidates will succeed Ms. Sirleaf, the first woman in Africa to be democratically chosen as president, often resembles a roof-raising party — but it also sometimes seems to be just on the edge of requiring a phone call to the police.

Fights between supporters of Mr. Weah and Mr. Boakai break out routinely; in Kakata last month several people were hospitalized after one fracas. Supporters stage impromptu daily marches, banging on the windows of cars in their way. And the memory of the country’s 14-year civil war, which came complete with child soldiers and rebel fighters wearing wedding gowns and blond wigs, hangs over it all.

In a radio broadcast at the beginning of the campaign season, Ms. Sirleaf urged her would-be successors to keep a lid on things. “We hold them as political leaders who seek the highest office of our land to act with dignity and responsibility that befits that office — to live up to their commitments to ensure violence-free elections,” she said.

But a quick perusal of those potential successors shows that may be easier said than done. Mr. Weah’s vice-presidential running mate is Mr. Taylor’s ex-wife, Jewel Howard Taylor, who told reporters last month that although her ex-husband isn’t involved in Liberian politics any longer — he is locked up in a British prison for war crimes — he still has promises that need to be kept. She called for putting Mr. Taylor’s agenda “back on the table.”

Photo

A TAYLOR TIE Mr. Weah and his running mate, Jewel Howard Taylor, the former wife of Charles Taylor, who is in prison. Credit Nic Bothma/European Pressphoto Agency

Her remarks so alarmed European Union officials in Monrovia that they put out a statement reminding Liberians that Mr. Taylor, who resigned as president in 2003, is in the fifth year of a 50-year prison sentence, and that it is not going to be “overruled because of a change of president in Liberia.” The statement noted that a condition of Mr. Taylor’s sentence is that “he does not attempt to interfere in Liberian politics, and this is monitored closely by prison authorities.”

Continue reading the main story

Also running for president is Prince Johnson, one of the former warlords roaming around town. Mr. Johnson, the standard-bearer of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction, is best known for ordering the killing of President Samuel K. Doe back at the start of the Liberian civil war in which a quarter-million people died.

Back in 1990, Mr. Johnson sipped a beer while ordering his youthful forces to cut off Mr. Doe’s ears; the video is widely available on the internet. But that hasn’t stopped Mr. Johnson’s political progress — he was elected senator from Nimba County in 2005, and came in third when he ran for president in 2011.

Mr. Johnson does not like Mr. Weah, whom he recently called a “drunk” in a radio interview. “His men have gone on rampage injuring people here and there,” complained the former warlord of the former soccer player. “If this guy is elected as president of Liberia, I see the country going back to war.”

Mr. Johnson recently split from an alliance with another candidate, Benoni Urey, who is, yes, another former Taylor ally. Mr. Urey is believed to be the richest man in Liberia — or at least he was, before he started his run for president and had to spend his some of his money.

Mr. Urey, of the All Liberian Party, flirted with a merger with Mr. Johnson back in April, but that quickly broke up over quarrels about who would be at the top of the ticket. Mr. Johnson told reporters that Mr. Urey “may have money, but I have the numbers.” Mr. Urey, he said, should act like Mr. Taylor’s former wife, who “humbled herself to go under Weah.”

Photo

ANOTHER TAYLOR CONNECTION A rally for Benoni Urey, a onetime adviser to former President Charles Taylor who spent a decade on a United Nations travel ban list. Credit Ahmed Jallanzo/European Pressphoto Agency

Mr. Urey was a close adviser to Mr. Taylor, and spent a decade on a United Nations travel ban list and a United States Treasury Department list that prohibited him from doing business with Americans. United States officials say his ties to Mr. Taylor mean that it is unlikely they would grant him a visa, which could be problematic should he become president.

Then there are Charles Brumskine, a lawyer and perennial presidential candidate, and Alex Cummings, a dark horse former Coca-Cola executive who has raced in recent weeks to catch up with the usual names. Mr. Cummings heads the Alternative National Congress party. He spent decades living and working overseas, but has apparently regained his Liberian accent and has made a big impact on the political scene since his return.

Unlike his opponents, Mr. Cummings is holding off on his own “launching” party until Saturday, just before such events are shut down, in the hopes of staging a big show of support before voters head to the polls. That political maneuver promptly spurred other parties to schedule additional parties, so this weekend is expected to be gridlock in Monrovia.

Mr. Weah’s ex-girlfriend is also running for president.

A model turned philanthropist, MacDella Cooper was once called a “serial husband stealer” in The New York Post’s Page Six column. Back during the salad days of their relationship, Ms. Cooper and Mr. Weah traveled together to Monte Carlo and Mexico. In 2014, she told The Post that Mr. Weah was the father of her third child, and that she was a future Liberian first lady. But things went downhill, as they sometimes do, and now Ms. Cooper is running against her former beau as the candidate of the Liberia Restoration Party.

Continue reading the main story

She is the only woman at the top of a ticket. Ms. Cooper told journalists last weekend that Ms. Sirleaf’s recent statement that it was time for “generational change” in Liberia was, as far as Ms. Cooper was concerned, a “clear endorsement for me, the only female candidate in the ensuing presidential race, because I am the youngest contender among the men.”

She is 40.

Finally, there is Ms. Sirleaf’s vice president, Mr. Boakai, who at the moment is involved in a spat with the president under whom he has served for 12 years. She is mad because of slogans like “our ma spoil it, our pa will fix it.” He is mad because Mrs. Sirleaf said that she was not going to hand him the presidency, and that he would have to work for it.

Whatever the case, the president has not been out campaigning for him, and there are whispers that she is flirting with Mr. Brumskine, with Mr. Cummings, even with Mr. Weah, whom she beat twice.

Such is democracy in Liberia. No one expects anyone to get over 50 percent on Tuesday, so there will probably be a runoff election, and the top two candidates will battle each other.

Photo

THE RACE NEARS Reading election information posters outside a school in Monrovia this week. Credit Nic Bothma/European Pressphoto Agency

Continue reading the main story

SHARE ON:
TagsAfricaBreakingElectionsJohnson Sirleaf, EllenLiberiaNewsPolitics and GovernmentWeah, George
Previous Article

Saudi rejects UN blacklisting over Yemen child ...

Next Article

Sudan sanctions: US lifts most economic restrictions ...

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

alternativeafrica

Related articles More from author

  • News NowWorld

    World Toilet Day 2017

    November 19, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News Now

    Bob Bradley persuades Egypt’s Omar Gaber to join Los Angeles FC

    November 22, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News NowWorld

    ISIL posts ‘Baghdadi audio’ issuing ‘resistance’ call

    September 28, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News NowWorld

    Burying the dead in Syria’s Yarmouk camp

    November 4, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News NowWorld

    Greece’s rejected asylum seekers stuck in limbo

    December 13, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News NowWorld

    Uncertainty among Kurds as polls open

    September 25, 2017
    By alternativeafrica

Leave a reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You might be interested

  • Business

    Nigeria Saves N13bn through IT Clearance in Two Years

  • AfricaHealthNews NowWorld

    Porcine Gelatine: Muslims raise concern over halal status of COVID-19 vaccine

  • AfricaHealthNews Now

    Troubled South Africa records another 5,000 new Covid-19 cases, total now 92 681

Timeline

  • January 15, 2021

    No change in horizon in Uganda as “lord Museveni” takes early election lead, rival alleges fraud

  • January 15, 2021

    UK opens largest temporary mortuary as high covid deaths continue

  • January 15, 2021

    Capitol Riot Fallout: Colleges Rescind Honorary Degrees Awarded To Trump

  • January 15, 2021

    Coated tongue becoming more widespread as coronavirus symptom-Expert

  • January 15, 2021

    Africa gets 1st vaccine doses from COVAX in March, mass vaccination in June-WHO

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Lagos govt confirms first case of deadly coronavirus infection in Nigeria

    By alternativeafrica
    February 28, 2020
  • Keynote Address of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at 2018 Oxford Africa Conference

    By PSJ Africa
    May 14, 2018
  • Morocco begins regional integration by connecting Casablanca Airport with High Speed Train

    By alternativeafrica
    January 4, 2020
  • Kenyan govt pressure Facebook for data on Kenyan users

    By alternativeafrica
    November 20, 2019
  • Nigeria: 32,000 capacity Lagos rice mill to start production in 2020

    By alternativeafrica
    December 23, 2019
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail – Future agricultures
    on
    October 16, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail - The Zimbabwean
    on
    October 12, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • Ethiopia joins Africa's Artificial Intelligence revolution | Alternative Africa
    on
    October 2, 2020

    Spending on Artificial Intelligence Systems in Africa, Middle East to top $374 million in 2020

    […] Many African countries ...
  • The 5 most popular Africans 2020
    on
    September 25, 2020

    Celebrating Congolese doctor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the man behind breakthrough of Ebola cure

    […] Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe ...
  • Millitants in Central Mali Set Jail Ablaze in Attack Killing Two | taktik(z) GDI (Government Defense ...
    on
    August 11, 2020

    Fifteen gendarmes killed in another attack on Mali camp

    […] attack fol­lowed a January ...
AlternativeAfrica.com is an independent Pan African News Website dedicated primarily to influencing the negative narratives about Africa. We hope to do this by focusing and showcasing the many developmental strides sweeping across the continent.

Read more >>>

Contact Info

  • 22 Laburnum Court, Laburnum Road, Mitcham London, CR4 2NA, United Kingdom
  • +44(0)2036320939 | +44(0)7535019197 | +44(0)7305356327
  • info@alternativeafrica.com
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • No change in horizon in Uganda as “lord Museveni” takes early election lead, rival alleges ...

    By alternativeafrica
    January 15, 2021
  • UK opens largest temporary mortuary as high covid deaths continue

    By alternativeafrica
    January 15, 2021
  • Capitol Riot Fallout: Colleges Rescind Honorary Degrees Awarded To Trump

    By alternativeafrica
    January 15, 2021
  • Coated tongue becoming more widespread as coronavirus symptom-Expert

    By alternativeafrica
    January 15, 2021
  • Lagos govt confirms first case of deadly coronavirus infection in Nigeria

    By alternativeafrica
    February 28, 2020
  • Keynote Address of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at 2018 Oxford Africa Conference

    By PSJ Africa
    May 14, 2018
  • Macron in Ivory Coast to launch anti-terrorism academy

    By alternativeafrica
    December 21, 2019
  • Kenyan govt pressure Facebook for data on Kenyan users

    By alternativeafrica
    November 20, 2019
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail – Future agricultures
    on
    October 16, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail - The Zimbabwean
    on
    October 12, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • Ethiopia joins Africa's Artificial Intelligence revolution | Alternative Africa
    on
    October 2, 2020

    Spending on Artificial Intelligence Systems in Africa, Middle East to top $374 million in 2020

    […] Many African countries ...
  • The 5 most popular Africans 2020
    on
    September 25, 2020

    Celebrating Congolese doctor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the man behind breakthrough of Ebola cure

    […] Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe ...

Photostream

    Follow us

    • Home
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
    © Copyright Alternative Africa 2019. All rights reserved.