MONROVIA – The ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) has started to campaign for a second term bid of President George Weah with large posters of Weah’s photos placed on street corners around the country.
This is a violation of election rules in the country.
The National Election Commission (NEC) has not spoken about this flagrant violation, but the opposition parties are very concerned.
CDC is scheduled to launch a second-term bid for Weah whose popularity has drastically fallen. The program is scheduled for February 4, and in anticipation of this day, has been mobilizing poor people, including students, market women, and petit criminals that are commonly called ‘Zogoes and Zogies’ to turnout at the program on Saturday.
President Weah’s chief of protocol, Nora Finda Bundo, has been giving clothing with the president’s photos to market women and dishing out cash to criminals who are also called ‘disadvantage youths’ by the government.
The opposition parties say they are careless about the launch of Weah’s second term bid but are concerned about the pre-campaign style mobilization of having the president’s photos posted on huge billboards on streets’ corners.
They have charged the ruling party with violation of election rules. Besides, some ordinary Liberians have commented on their social media pages against the government’s pre-campaign activities.
They say this is a recipe for chaos in a country that has a history wars.
Weah’s special aide-Sekou Kalasco Damaro, has been wearing campaign-liked shirts and posting them on his social media pages, prompting reactions from other Liberians.
One social media user said, “The violation of National Elections Commission rules regarding campaign activities by the CDC is detrimental to President Weah’s re-election efforts.”
According to the NEC’s revised timeline, national campaign activities are only allowed from August 5 to October 8.
He indicates that “Wearing campaign materials and holding political gatherings outside of the designated campaign period is a blatant disregard for the 2023 elections schedule and violates election law.”
As previously noted by the Unity Party in response to President Weah’s 6th State of the Nation Address, George Weah’s administration has not been respectful of the rule of law in Liberia; warning that the repeated occurrence of this act is being closely observed by Liberians.
