TWP Observes 150th Anniversary

The True Whig Party (TWP) yesterday began celebrating its 150th anniversary under the theme “A TIME FOR HEALING”.
During the anniversary ceremony, series of programs to re-awaken the spirit of the party were carried out, with a policy to engage the Liberian Government and International partners to exhume the mass grave on Center Street bearing the remains of the late Liberian leader, William R. Tolbert and other top government officials who were executed in the 1980 military coup.
Others were, to identify and construct a National Memorial Park to honor all past Presidents and victims of civil conflict, which the vision of the TWP also called for a Presidential Library and Museum to be constructed in the Park to be a center for study and research in Liberian history, politics and culture.
The next point was for the TWP’s plans to solicit assistance to complete the National Unification Monument on the Providence Island which was started by the late President Tolbert as a symbol of national unity, and to engender national reconciliation; the TWP will seek the cooperation of the Government, Political Parties, International Partners, and Civil Society Organizations to convene a one week “National Symposium on Ethnicity, Identity & National Development”, which is expected that the Symposium will help to resolve the historic ethnic mistrusts and remove tribal barriers that continue to divide the Liberian people.
“Today, the TWP remains the standard bearer of Liberian politics and is proud of its history and achievements in global politics, especially in fostering the struggle for independence of many African countries,” a statement of the TWP stated.
The True Whig Party was founded October 8, 1869 in Clay-Ashland, Montserrado County, as the first grassroots opposition political party to oppose the ruling Republican Party.
In 1870, the TWP defeated the Republican Party in a landslide victory, but a year later in 1871, its first standard bearer; President Edward Jerome Roye, was deposed and killed on the spot where the party’s National Headquarters, the EJ. Roye Building was subsequently constructed.
The survival of the TWP over the years has gone hand in hand with the survival of the Liberian nation. It has endured many challenges, and stood the test of time as an institution because it was built on a solid foundation. Many other political parties that were established and contested against the TWP have faded into history. They include the Republican Party, the New Republican Party, the Reformation Party, the Peoples Party, the National Union Party, and the Independent True Whig Party