PHOTO: PLP political leader Dr. Daniel Cassell
By Moses D. Sandy,mds66.sandy@aol.com
New Castle, Delaware, USA- The Standard Bearer of the opposition People’s Liberation Party (PLP), Dr. Daniel Cassell, says the Party has no alliance with the shattered Collaborating Political Parties (CPP). Dr. Cassell says the FrontPageAfrica (FPA) Newspaper’s publication of Monday, August 1, 2022, which claims that the PLP has joined the CPP, is untrue.
The Paper in a lead news story captioned, ANC Requests the People’s Liberation Party to Join CPP, reported that on July 29, 2022, the National Chairman of the PLP, Tapple E. Doe, in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), Senator Daniel Naatehn, conveyed to the Senator that the Party’s decision to join the CPP was made recently in Monrovia.
According to the Paper, Chairman Doe reportedly informed Chairman Naatehn that the PLP Executive Committee and the General Policy Commission (GPC) met and unanimously endorsed the decision.
However, in a press release issued on Wednesday, August 3, 2022, the PLP Standard Bearer denied the media report. He termed the publication attributed to the PLP National Chairman, Tapple E. Doe, and Secretary General, Daniel Gayou, as unfortunate.
He said he is not aware of such decision. Dr. Cassell maintained that “Any decision to join or form a collaboration can only be done by the Standard Bearer convening a special convention that will bring together the PLP leadership from all of the counties in Liberia”.
The PLP political leader clarified that even though the leadership of the PLP is in receipt of an invitation from the ANC to join the CPP, neither him nor executives of the Party have taken any decision to accept the invitation or not. On July 21, 2022, the ANC extended the PLP an invitation to join the CPP.
Dr. Cassell said: “The PLP is open to every possible collaboration that would be based only on new terms, conditions, and frameworks”. He said if the PLP is to proceed with any negotiation for the possibility of a collaboration, such negotiation will be from a “position of strength”.
Quoting Article V. Section 5.1[(a) GPC] and 5.3[(2) GC] of the PLP constitution, Dr. Cassell said as Standard Bearer, he has veto power regarding decisions emanating from the General Policy Commission (GPC) and the Governing Council (GC) that seek to undermine the stability of the Party and jeopardize its chances of assuming state power.
The CPP is currently at the brink of collapse. The Collaboration was established few years ago, by four opposition political parties after President George Manneh Weah and the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) administration ascended to the political leadership of Liberia. The founding members of the CPP are the Unity Party (UP), All Liberian Party (ALP), Liberty Party (LP), and the Alternative National Congress (ANC). The once vibrant and powerful CPP primary objective is to make Mr. Weah a one term president.
For now, the CPP membership includes the ANC and Chairman Musah Bility’s faction of the LP. The UP, ALP, and the LP faction of Senator Nyonblee Karngar-Lawrence/Political Leader have since walked away from the collaboration. They broke away from the political union few months ago due to internal strife.
Meanwhile, Dr. Cassell is calling on all national executive members, county chairpersons, and partisans of the PLP in Liberia to remain hopeful and focus on the discharge of their duties and functions of their respective offices, as he prepares to return to Liberia soon.