The acting chairperson of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), Alexander B. Cummings, says since his party’s candidate was denied certification, the party will field no candidate in the pending re-run in Lofa County.
Cummings said out rightly that the CPP will not support any candidate in the pending by-election because Brownie Samukai, a supported CPP candidate from the Unity Party, won the election but the government decided to undo the will of the majority expressing, “So we don’t see need to put a candidate in the Lofa race because we had a candidate who won but was denied the opportunity to serve his people after he had won overwhelmingly.”
In a chat with journalists yesterday, Cummings said, “Any one party within the CPP that choses to field a candidate in your party’s name will be violating the contract agreed to in the framework.”
“This is about being honorable, this is about integrity and all we want is that the NEC holds the Unity Party accountable to the contract they signed when they agreed to join the CPP because the Unity Party exercised its right to freedom of association when it associated with the CPP according to Article 17 as well as its rights to enter into contract when they agreed to the framework document as in Article 25 and therefore will not turn around and try to have it both ways,” he said.
The ANC political leader said what he subscribes to is pushing for competition instead of a compromise and that was some of the reasons for the disagreements among the leaders because some people carried a ‘sense of entitlement’ as there was information that there would have been a coronation of the former Vice President as standard bearer of the party.
“We don’t believe that anyone needed to be coronated instead everyone should earn the right to leadership,” he reiterated.
He said if we want Liberia to move forward, Liberians must follow rules and processes.
Cummings then informed the media that all was going well for two years with this same framework document and no one challenged it after the party had won six seats in the Legislature.
Meanwhile, Mr. Cummings said technically the CPP is comprised of the Liberty Party and the ANC but legally, the four political parties that initially formulated the collaboration are still hinged as per the framework contract.
He explained that with the current structure, the CPP will evolve to incorporate other parties because reaching our final destination is the parties’ goal adding, “And we are clear and sure about that.”
“I have no regrets joining the CPP but I have disappointments because we all did not live up to our promise; there were some lessons learnt along the way. I thought those within the CPP has the right intent but when faced with competition, they decided to leave,” Cummings stated.
He vowed that going forward, the CPP will revisit its framework and all other issues but assured that it is highly unlikely that those parties that withdrew from the collaboration will return though anything is possible.
As for the ongoing trial, Cummings said it does not affect him or his ambition for 2023 because they will prove their innocence stressing, “We are innocent.”
