By Laurina B. Lormia (Intern)
Bomi County Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe, Jr., in an interview, talked about the elections for both the Speaker for the House of Representatives and Pro-Temp for the House of Senate.
According to Senator Snowe, there are four strong candidates vying for the Speakership in the House of Representatives: Musa Bility, Jonathan Fonati Koffa, Thomas Fallah, and Richard Nagbe Koon.
“Honorable Koon will be leading the block of the Unity Party (UP) with his direct rivals being Honorable Fallah and Koffa, with the exception of Bility, who is not a member of the CDC, but his party, CPP, supported the CDC in the presidential run-off election; so if the three of them from the same political alliance can meet and decide who becomes the next Speaker, I’m sure there will be a Speaker in the House of Representatives from the opposition leadership,” Snowe said.
“This was the same reason why CPP broke apart, because everyone said President-elect Boakai was the former vice president, so he should just be the President, and Cummings said no, he had the more numbers, so they should do voter perception survey, so this serves as a good argument,” he stressed.
“I will expect by this time, among the 3 gentlemen from the CDC that I know strongly, there should be major consultations and meetings on-going, to see how they can consolidate, because of the configuration of political parties, individuals, independence, and all of that in the house, I don’t know if any political party has the absolute majority, for you to say you have the numbers you are going to fight over,” Snowe said.
“I know the CDC has more numbers, but it’s not enough to give them the Speakership. Meanwhile, we are excited to have election for Pro-Temp before the inauguration, either our first or second day sitting, I have no interest in becoming Pro-Temp; four of my colleagues have expressed their interest to participate in the Senate election, the Senate is as split as the election of the country,” Snow said.
“As you see, the configuration of the Senate today is a complete replica of the outcome of the presidential election, especially the second round; there are 11 CDC members elected as senators and 4 non-CDCians who supported the CDC either in the first, second, or both rounds of the elections.”
Snowe said, “If the 4 non-CDCians decide that they will join the CDC in this election leadership, then you have 15; on the other side, you have UP and other alliances that either supported the UP or went solo. In total, UP should have been 15, but excluding the Vice president-elect Koung, you have 14; so now it’s 14-15.”
“It tells you what happened in the general elections, I, Honorable Snowe, will support the CDC, for our democracy it will be correct if the Pro-Temp and Speaker come from the CDC, and the opposition leading both houses, you now bring the opposition to the national discourse, to discuss national politics and move the country forward,” Snowe added.
