Ganta — Ms. Charlyne Brumskine, daughter of the founding father of Liberty Party Charles Walker Brumskine, has declared that the party's door for reconciliation with Senators Abraham Darius Dillon, Nyonblee Karngar-Lawrence and other aggrieved members of the party is still opened, but requires their willingness to accept.
"The beautiful thing about reconciliation is you can't force anyone; you can't tie anyone's hands to cave in. Reconciliation is about one's willingness to decide whether he or she wants to do so, or not. We will continue to extend a hand of reconciliation, and those who want to come, will come," she said.
The Liberty Party has been enmeshed in a series of legal and political hullabaloos amid disagreements on who to support in the 2023 presidential election between the Alternative National Congress' standard bearer Alexander Cummings and Unity Party's standard bearer, Amb. Joseph Boakai.
Charlyne, whose faction of party has endorsed Cummings, believes the continued fight within the party is based on ideological differences among leaders of the party on who to support in the 2023 presidential election.
Dillon: "Charlyne needs to be decisive"
Speaking in Buchanan recently, Dillon, Senator of Monsterrado County, maintained that the other faction of Liberty Party hold no grudges against Charlyne, but it was now time she reconciles with Senator Karngar-Lawrence, and stop "playing games" between the two factions.
"Senator Dillon: "No one in Liberty Party hates Charlyne Brumskine. If it will mean parading with her from the entry of Grand Bassa to the principal streets in Buchanan to show our support to her, we will do so, but she needs to decide which side she's for in this conflict. You can't be here and there. She has to decide where which side she on heading towards t. She has to reconcile with her big sister Karngar-Lawrence to move our party in one accord.
"Pushing the Bassa agenda for VSB"
Meanwhile, Charlyne Saturday clarified she has not been offered any opportunity to go as a running mate to the standard bearer of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) Alexander Cummings despite many rumors, but would, however, be happy if a native of Grand Bassa County were selected to go as running mate to Cummings.
She said: "We have not been offered any position in the CPP beyond our district aspirations. I believe Grand Bassa County needs to be represented at the highest level. If you look at the political landscape in Liberia, Bong County is represented, the South-East is represented, Nimba County is represented, Lofa County is represented, someone from Grand Bassa must be represented on the CPP ticket, it doesn't necessarily mean me."
Why Cummings Didn't Name His Running Mate in Ganta
The Liberian public had high expectations of learning who the running mate would be for the CPP, especially given that the CPP had recently gathered in Ganta, Nimba County for its convention. However, the constitution of Alexander Cummings' Alternative National Congress (ANC) prohibits the announcement of a running mate from outside the county of origin of the candidate.
This was raised by the ex-chairman of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) Lafayette Gould who raised a last-minute motion that a pronouncement of a would-be person be named in the person's county of nativity, in concurrence with the constitution.
Gould proposed that such a decision be made within a period of 21 days, but delegates unanimously proposed that the pronouncement be done within the grace period of 14 days.
'I will fight corruption', Cummings
Cummings, meanwhile, Friday pledged to to rid Liberia of endemic corruption that has stifled the underdevelopment of country if he wins this year's election.
"Unless we change the politics by changing the political leadership, we are stuck in this terrible state of underdevelopment and misery," he said.
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"During my leadership as president, Liberians will work for their own money, no free gifts. We will not give you money, we all will carry out effective works including development activities together, we all need to work together for the betterment of this country."
Cummings' Alternative National Congress (ANC) - a constituent party of the CPP - elected re-elected him to contest as presidential candidate and 15 other senator and representative aspirants to contest on the party's ticket in October at a one-day convention in Ganta.
In his acceptance statement, Cummings expressed gratitude for his re-election as standard bearer and vowed to uphold the trust and work assiduously to bring "real change" in the socio-economic life of the suffering masses.
"There will be strict adherence to democratic norms and the merit system and we reject the age-old practices including a brown envelope for lawmakers, which are deemed counter-productive to the principles of good governance.
