Story originally published on Ceasefire Liberia
By: Our Staff Reporter
Since Pres. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s announcement that she would seek a second term in office, the political opposition has been very busy condemning her and calling her run for office unconstitutional.
In Sirleaf’s 2005 campaign statement she said she would run for office for only one term.
President Sirleaf, in keeping with a constitutional mandate, addressed the fifth session of the 52nd National Legislature on January 25, 2010. At the end of her speech she finally put an end to speculation of whether she would seek a second term by announcing her decision to run.
“Therefore, however I act, whatever I do, it will be for you," Sirleaf said. "And so it is for these reasons and to bring to an end all speculations, that I now announce to you and to the thousands of supporters in radio land and abroad that I will be a candidate, a formidable candidate, in the 2011 elections. Let us travel the rest of this road together knowing that the God who brought us this far will not leave us."
Since her pronouncement there have been mixed views on her decision to contest the next election, which is slated for 2011.
There are many formidable opposition candidates who will run as well, including, Cllr. Charles Brumskine, the standard bearer of the Liberty Party, which is considered to be the second largest opposition party by evidence of the last elections.
The opposition leader has described as sad and unfortunate the President’s decision to announce her candidacy while delivering the nation’s annual message. Cllr. Brumskine is one of many Liberians who fell that the venue was not the right place for her to announce her re-run “campaign." Others think it was the wrong time for her to make such an announcement.
Brumskine further stated that no administration in the history of our country has received more international aid, benefited from more multilateral assistance, and been the target of such international goodwill as the Sirleaf government.
“Yet after four years of being in power, about 85% of the population is still unemployed and four out of every five Liberians cannot find $1 dollar a day on which to live. For the ordinary Liberian, not much has changed. In fact, life has gotten harder”, he said.
Another key opposition figure, Lewis Brown, who comes from the former ruling party of former President Charles Taylor, described the President’s declaration as desecration of the sacredness of the Liberian Presidency.
The National Patriotic Party (NPP) executive who also served as foreign minister under the Taylor’s Administration stated: “No president, since the foundation of our Republic, has so diminished and disfigured the Office of President and desecrated the sacredness of the duties thereunto assigned like President/candidate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf”.
The former Speaker of the House of Representatives of the National Legislature, and also an influential member of the opposition block, has described her pronouncement while delivering the State of the Nation Address as a big shame to Liberia and its people.
Representative Edwin Snowe of Montserrado County said: “The President’s address is a big shame to this country. She was not doing a favor to the legislature or the Liberian people for which she decided to deliver a summary instead of the full text of her address."
The ambassador to the United States of America, Linda Thomas Greenfield, told a local news outlet that there is no reason why President Sirleaf should not seek a second term. She is quoted as saying:” That was her personal decision and this is her personal decision. My views are not important as the Liberian people’s views."
Even Sec. of State Hilary Clinton said she supports Sirleaf’s bid for re-election.
Meanwhile, there has been no official position from the country’s largest opposition party of former soccer star George Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) on the President’s controversial State of the Nation Address.
But members of the Unity Party, the ruling party of President Sirleaf, and other Liberians have said she was not in error to announce her 2011 bid.
They argue that it is her constitutional right.
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