The opposition United People’s Party (UPP) has dismissed reports that it has given support to the ruling Unity Party (UP) of Vice President Joseph Boakai.
UPP was founded by the late veteran Liberian politician Gabriel Baccus Matthews many decades ago. And the party fielded one of the 20 presidential candidates that participated in the first round of the presidential election on October 10, 2017.
In a press statement on Tuesday, the Chairman and Executive Members of the UPP said such report that it supports Boakai in the December 26 presidential runoff election “is false, misleading and deceptive.”
The UPP’s statement was issued on the day a few of their officials declared their endorsement for the presidential bid of incumbent Vice President Boakai at his residence in the Monrovia suburb of Paynesville.
Since the first round of the election results was announced last October, UPP’s presidential candidate Mcdonald Wento and other top party officials have since endorsed George Weah and his Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) for the delayed runoff polls.
“The pronouncement made on December 19, 2017 by a few former officers and non-partisans of UPP, including Dr. Marcus S. G. Dahn, Vice Standard Bearer of the Liberian People’s Party (LPP); Prof. Edwin Tetteh; Ambassador Wesley M. Johnson, member of the Governance Commission; among others, suggesting that the United People’s Party has endorsed UP in the run-off, is criminal, diabolical and an act of desperation,” the UPP press release says.
The release signed by UPP’s National Chairman T.Q Harris says “the leadership of UPP calls on all partisans and the Liberian people in general throughout the country to campaign and vote for George Manneh Weah and Jewel Howard-Taylor as the presidential ticket of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in the run-off election.”
“It must be noted that, on October 30, 2017, the United People’s Party endorsed and gave its full, unequivocal support and backing to the CDC in the up-coming run-off presidential election,” the UPP press release concluded.