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Weah Boosts CDC Campaign

Former Liberian soccer legend turned-politician George Oppong Manneh Weah returned to the country Thursday evening and gave the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC)'s senatorial bid a serious boost Friday when he pulled thousands of his supporters. Weah's return boosted Geraldine Doe-Sheriff's senatorial bid which had been not seen much popularity since she launched her campaign a fortnight ago.

First Partisan and Standard-Bearer Amb. Weah and Doe-Sheriff began a campaign tour yesterday morning from the ELWA Junction in Paynesville to the Red Light Market and continued throughout Gardnesville and ended in the borough of New Kru Town.Thousands of sympathizers, supporters and well-wishers trooped after the convoy of Weah who stood over an opened vehicle along with the party's candidate Sherif. The thousands of fans were dominated by young people whose loyalty was displayed as far as traveling with the campaign convoy from start to end. Dozens of motorcycles or ‘pehn-pehns', dominated the former soccer legend's campaign trail which caused serious traffic congestion throughout Friday from the Red Light Market to Point Four and New Kru Town where thousands more awaited the arrival of their former soccer star and now their political hero.

Weah told thousands of supporters that he returned to give his full support to Sheriff for her to become the next senator of Montserrado County come November 10, 2009 during a mass rally in the Red Light Market area at one of his party's sub-offices. He said that he has traveled miles to come to regain the seat of his party by supporting Geraldine. “The seat must come back to us”, the former Liberian soccer ambassador said.

Introduction To 2011
Observers believe the presence of Weah sends a strong signal to other parties, especially the ruling Unity Party (UP) who is very desperate to clinch the senatorial slot for the country's most populous county for which it has only one legislature with the CDC having 11 legislative seats—10 representatives of the county's 14 representatives and one senator. They believe that Friday's massive turn-out by the thousands of CDC's partisans and sympathizers to welcome home Weah is a real test of his popularity, leading to the ensuing general and presidential elections in 2011.

It is also be said that his return would serve as a serious impediment to the senatorial hopes of the other 9 candidates

The senatorial by-election is scheduled to take place on November 10 with a possible re-run slated for November 24.

The race is being closely contested by 10 candidates, with a couple of them being regarded as heavy political weights.
The ruling UP has fielded Clemenceau Urey, described as being ‘resourceful' by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. He ran on the party's ticket 2005 and lost behind the CDC's two senatorial candidates at the time who clinched Montserrado County's two senatorial seats.

Others being considered as political weights in the ongoing senatorial race are Darius Dillion who is being fielded by the second largest opposition party, the Liberty Party, Professor Wilson K. Tarpeh of the Alliance for Peace and Democracy (APD), and Professor Alhahi G.V. Kromah, an independent candidate who is one of the country's former warlords. The others are Grace McGill Kpaan, Daniel Johnson and Jacqueline Capehart who are all independent candidates and the Rev. Jasper Ndaborlor of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

November 10 has been set as the date for the by-election. The winner will be declared on the 14th of November while any possible re-run will be held on the 24th of the same month.

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