Top Liberty Party (LP) executives including Vice Presidential candidate Harrison Karnwea and the National Chairman Benjamin Sanvee have endorsed George Weah of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) for the December 26 runoff presidential election, triggering a split in the party.
Karnweah and Sanvee were also joined in endorsing Weah on Thursday by the head of the LP national campaign team, top Liberian businessman Musa Bility during a big program held at the CDC’s headquarters in Monrovia.
The endorsement, which was immediately condemned by LP Secretary General Jacob Smith, was held as party leader and presidential candidate Charles Brumskine was out of the country.
“It is ridiculous and doesn’t represent the position of the Liberty Party,” Smith told the local media on Thursday.
He said when Brumskine returns to Liberia this Friday, he will fully address himself to the move by the LP officials, which goes against the party’s policy to decide on such a course of action at a National Executive committee meeting.
“It is a sinister plan intended to undermine the authority of the Standard Bearer,” Smith claimed.
The LP Secretary General said such a unilateral move would tend to create a wrong impression of what his party stands for.
Before Thursday’s endorsement, other top LP figures have been pledging their endorsement to the CDC in droves, something that have annoyed the Brumskine faction of the opposition party, which has been partnering with the ruling Unity Party in the October 10 elections fraud case at NEC and the Supreme Court.