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Headlines
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Written by Our Senior Staff
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Monday, 30 July 2012 00:49 |
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Established political parties in Liberia could likely be scrolled in the 2017 presidential and legislative elections if a reported long- range plan said to be in the making becomes a reality.
Highly placed sources in the corridors of power have confided in the In Profile Daily that US$20m included in the 2012/2013 Fiscal Budget for so-called youth empowerment is only a cover-up to mislead the public.
Sources said the intent of the allocation, which a clique of President Sirleaf’s cabinet along with some of her political strategists allegedly infused the money in the budget for, when passed by the National Legislature, is to be used for the formation of a new political party that could provide President Sirleaf the opportunity to run for the presidency not on the ticket of the ruling Unity Party.
The In Profile has also been hinted that earlier plan for the amount placed in the budget was to support a coalition of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) and the ruling Unity Party but, as one insider claimed, “the first meeting that brought Amb. George Weah and top hierarchies of the Unity Party together crash landed as Weah disagreed thus indicating that his ambition to run for the presidency remains strong.”
Sources from the UP also revealed that President Sirleaf and some of her close cabinet members have already begun preliminary discussions with legal practitioners about the way forward to circumvent the constitutional provision which prohibits third term.
However, information available to this paper indicates that radical partisans of the UP especially some of those at the National Legislature are said to be determined to block the passage of the US$20m reportedly placed in the budget purportedly for youth empowerment.
“The need to support political parties as the 165th Independence Orator Elwood Dun indicated which President Sirleaf also buttressed came from this background,” one source claimed.
Accordingly, part of the master plan to get President Sirleaf seek a third term has successfully been worked out when chiefs assembled recently in Monrovia to embrace government’s decentralization policy.
Sources also disclosed that the second phase of the master plan is a pending meeting in Monrovia where about 150 zoes from across Liberia are expected to have a meeting with President Sirleaf and other stakeholders following her return from her scheduled Israel visit.
The In Profile has also gathered that both the zoes and chiefs would petition the National Legislature to legislate a law that would allow President Sirleaf to run during the 2017 elections.
“ Frankly speaking, the idea of a third party has been speculated in the upper echelons of the party; although we are yet to formalize a concrete position,” an insider claimed.
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