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Alhaji Kromah, Sam Kromah, Varfley Dolleh
and Losene Bility in the Race to Replace Hannah Brent?
By: Nvasekie N. Konneh
August 30, 2009
“Soldier dies soldier takes place” is an adage we heared a lot when
we were growing up. Meaning at this time in the Liberian political
circle the race to fill the void left in the wake of the death of Hannah
Brent, Junior Senator for Montserrado County. Ms. Brent was a partisan
of CDC. Her death has opened the chance of by-election to be held in
three months in accordance with the Liberian Constitut ion. Wh ile the
junior senator is just being buried, politicia ns are already jockeying
to replace her. Among the names that have surfaced are those of
Jeraldine Doe Sherriff, Lenn Eugene Nagbe and Acarus Gray, all of CDC.
Also rumored to have been considering a run for the seat is the former
speaker Edwin Snow and now representative of Montserrado County.
As expected, there is no shortage of names for the post which is open to
all registered political parties in the country. Adding to the names of
potential candidates for the seats is Professor Alhaji JV Kromah,
standard bearer of All Liberian Coalition Party (ALCOP), Varfley Dolleh,
former legislator during the IGNU era, Sam Mohammed Kromah, former
president of ULAA and Losene Bility who ran an unsuccessful campaign for
the senate in 2005. Even though none of the above individuals have made
any public declaration of their interests to contest in the up-coming
by-election, it’s been speculated in some circle that they are among the
potential candidates.
From the stand point of our community,if we have to support any of the
four candidates, let’s briefly examine what th ey bring to the table and
what are their chances? Of the four politicians named above from our
community, Prof. Alhaji Kromah has been around for a long time including
the time when he served as leader of the defunct ULIMO. He had twice
contested for the Liberian presidency and it’s not yet clear if he would
be running again as his party’s standard bearer in 2011. As a former
candidate for the presidency, will he consider a run for the post of a
Junior Senator? Why not, some people who I spoke to pointed at Cletus
Wortoson who was a presidential candidate in 1997 and ran and won the
Grand Kru County’s senate seat in 2005 general elections. As a boss of
his party, ALCOP, Alhaji Kromah could gain the nomination and has a
better chance of winning the senatorial seat of Montserrado County than
the presidency which he may still be interested in.
Varfley Dolleh has be en around for a while from his days in student
politic at the University of Liberia to his time as member of the
Transitional Legislative Assembly representing Lofa County. But that was
not an elective position. Varfley Dolleh belonged to ULIMO at the time
and served as a ULIMO representative representing his native county,
Lofa. As far as party affiliation goes, Varfley is a member of CDC. Were
he to win the nomination of CDC, he would have a great chance of the
winning the race to fill the void left by the death of Senator Brent.
With the three top CDC members already in the race, it’s not clear what
Varfley’s chance in his party is. The last time former ULAA president
ran for an elected post was as a Vice Presidential candidate in 2005.
Later he was considering a run for the mayor of Monrovia but the
prospect for the election for that post was curtailed by the fact that
as of now, the position of a mayor is filled by appointment by the
president of Liberia.
Another possible candidate is Losene Bility who campaigned very hard for
the Montserrado County senate seat in 2005. He ran as an independent
candidate and was able to mobilize a strong grass root supports but not
enough to have won as the two Montserrado senate seats were taken by the
popular CDC of the soccer legend, George Weah.
Montserrado being the most urban county of Liberia with people from all
over Liberia living there, campaigning fo r an elected post there will
be very costly. A candidate will have to build a massive campaign war
chest to be able to win. It could run into tens of thousands of dollars.
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