The Unity Party has attributed its defeat in the recent Montserrado County by-election to many factors, amongst them importing officials with fabulous salaries, but warns that should the Congress for Democratic Change of football star George Weah emerge victorious in 2011, there will be disaster.

The CDC, with Monrovia as its stronghold, mainly the shantytowns, won by 12,000 votes in the midst of massive voters' apathy. It took 55.4% while the UP carried 44.6%.

In an exclusive interview with this paper last week, UP's chair, Dr. Charles A. Clarke said the UP's failure to reward its avante guard to adequately reward those who sacrificed to bring it to power.

He said, "The party's failure to reward those who sacrificed to bring it to power with jobs and the separation of the party from government, wherein several individuals were hired from abroad and outside the ranks and file of the party to work at cabinet level and other government agencies," are amongst the factors that led to defeat.

The UP's National chair regretted that the party had not been consulted for an input toward the formation of the UP-led government.

He said such irony had diminished the party's strength, and lamented some of those officials hired outside party ranks do not recognize it (Unity Party), failing to remember that their performance in government is being used "unfortunately" to judge the party at the polls.

Dr. Clarke: "Within the party, we need to begin to recognize those individuals that have made commitment. They are loyal. That has worked. We need to reward them with jobs. We have not done that sufficiently.

"Another one is the mistake that was made by separating party from government. As the result of this separation of party from government, the Party has not been recognized" by job seekers recruited outside the UP.

"The situation is this: they created a division between the party and the government and there is no way you can create a division between the Party and government because the party created the government. Once you talk about division the Party is not recognized, the strength of the party is diminished and those the Party awarded jobs do not recognize the party."

He emphasized the need for the Unity Party to concentrate more on its domestic policies despite overwhelming international support.

He dismissed claims from the opposition Alliance for Peace and Democracy (APD) that the low turnout, which marred the by-election, demonstrates a lack of confidence in the Unity Party.

Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh, a former presidential candidate who heads the APD said the by-election is an indication that the electorates are opting for a "better political option" than the UP and the Congress for Democratic Change.

But the UP chair rejected the suggestion saying the by- election does not reflect his party's strength across the country and that a CDC victory come 2011 will be a "disaster" because it will be a return to "turbulence".

But a CDC official rejected the UP chair's suggestions, saying that re-election of the into power come 2011will be the "perpetuation of a corrupt regime."